The I of the Beholder
by Ysabet
Summary: A story about ghosts and monsters and REALLY evil things going bump in the night. Not so much from Ushio's viewpoint, this time: an Asako story. @@@ IT'S FINISHED!!! ALL CHAPTERS & EPILOGUE LOADED AS OF 10/5/01!!!@@@
1. Smoke and Mirrors

The I of the Beholder  
By Ysabet  
  
Ysabet's Notes: Hi again! This one is set about a year after the Spear came to Ushio; I thought I'd try something a bit spooky using another main character, rather than just focusing on the Spearbearer all the time. He & Asako are about 16 now, and she knows about the Spear. If you're following the manga, it could be anytime after Volume 13; if you're following the anime, well.... it's just in the future after the last episode. She knows about the Spear, she knows about Tora.... and she's not at all sure how she feels about the whole deal. This may be a long one; hope you enjoy! Aaaaand, once again: These characters belong to the mighty Kazuhiro Fujito, who I wish would pick up the series again & continue it.....  
  
  
Chapter 1: Smoke and Mirrors  
  
Nightmares are strange things. You finish your day tired and worn out, ready to drop all the cares and worries of life into the smooth dark waters of sleep--- and what happens? You end up wrestling with those self-same cares grown huge and overwhelming, beating you down, eating you alive..... Or perhaps it's something from the hidden recesses of your childhood that invades your rest, something small made unreasonably horrifying and significant: the eyes of a doll, the shadows in the closet just beyond your bedroom door, the thing under the bed that never sleeps and only comes out when you drop your wide-eyed child's vigil..... Reason dies very young in dreams.  
  
And then there's the other kind of nightmares, the ones you can never quite talk about: the ones where you find yourself doing and saying all the things you really, *really* would like to do, but won't do because of morality or fear or social embarrassment. Dreams of desire, of violence, dreams of greed and fulfilled anger, temptations that blossom in the night into a temporary reality that both horrifies and thrills you. Wrong, all of it (and you know that, don't you, even sleeping?)--- it shakes you and breaks your peace and sends you gasping back to shatter the surface of sleep, shivering and wondering *how could I even THINK that?*  
  
Those nightmares are the worst of all..... maybe because, deep down, some part of you wants them to be true.********************************************************************************************************************************************  
  
"Ah, CRAP!!"  
  
*Wham! Crash!! Thud!!! tinkle, tinkle, tinkle.......  
  
The young archaeology student braced himself, panic-stricken, as boxes began sliding down in a convoluted waterfall beside him; he spread his arms wide, trying to keep several months' worth of work from going down the tubes. Behind him he could hear a distant, frustrated shout from his instructor: "Goddamit, Toshii! Can't you do ANYTHING right?!?"  
  
Moments later he knelt sullenly on the dusty floor, trying to collect scattered tags and documents--- Toshii had caught the boxes alright, but as for the papers stacked in between them.... Well, shit. He was going to be here all evening dealing with this mess, and that old fart of a supposed teacher wasn't helping much, was he? 'Pick up the damned boxes, Toshii, and clean up this pigpen--- what the hell did *I* do to get assigned such a blundering jackass for an aid?' and 'Get busy, Toshii, it's not like you're doing anything better with your time, is it?' That was the kind of bullshit he had to put up with everyday on this dig; he flushed even redder than before as he recalled the giggling he had heard from several of the female aids.  
  
Well, screw them. He picked up the last couple of tags and began sorting through the remaining boxes, looking for a match. It was quiet now at the dig site; six o'clock had come and gone, and everyone had headed home for dinner... everyone except him. *He* had to stay and play cleaning-woman for a bunch of junk. Toshii sighed and ran a dusty hand through his short-cropped black hair; archaeology had sounded like such a great major when he started in it--- his head had danced with visions of Masutero Toshii the new voice of Japanese history, discovering yet another great and wonderful example of ancient cultures and lost cities..... Photo-spreads in National Geographic and Smithsonian, his face staring seriously from beneath one of those beaten-up khaki hats like all the adventurer-archaeologists in the movies wore--- it all sounded so *attractive*, so possible.....  
  
He grunted as a box nearly slipped through his fingers. Nobody told you about all the endless cataloging of potsherds, all the notes, the hours stringing a site and attaching little tags and laying tarps down to prevent rain-damage. Hell, no, he groused to himself, checking yet another box. And then there were the professors..... They all thought they were *such* hot shit! Like they walked on water, like they had never been students themselves. Well, someday HE'd be the one holding the stick, and they could *all* look out for their goddamned reputations then..... Toshii frowned as something in the box in front of him made a distinctive broken-glass tinkle; oh hell, had he broken something after all? He *thought* he had managed to grab everything before it hit the ground---  
  
Looking around to make sure the coast was clear, he opened the small box. Weird; the student bent his head over its contents, one eyebrow quirked in curiosity. This site they were working on wasn't really that old, just four hundred years or so; it had been an old manor house on the outskirts of Tokyo (or what had grown into Tokyo eventually), and it wasn't that important. But it *was* slated for demolition sometime in the next year, so one of the universities had provided funding for an onsite dig. This thing.... It lay shining up at him from the box: A bronze frame, perfectly round with a handle, etched with water plants (as far as he could tell); and all around it pieces of--- silvered glass? Not too old, then, if the mirror was glass and not metal. Sixteenth or seventeenth century, probably. Toshii wondered frantically if the mirror had been broken before it was put into the box, or whether the breaks had happened only a few minutes before. Oh, hell--- if his professors found out that *he* had broken an artifact, they'd have his head on a platter! There would go his diploma, his chances for greatness, his cushy job someday at a national museum.... But if he put the pieces back together again inside the frame, maybe they'd think that they had been broken *before* it came out of the ground; yeah, he could do that. And if they weren't all there, he'd know that this was the case anyway.  
  
This piece went here, and that piece went there..... CRAP! Sharp!! Toshii swore and stuck his freely-bleeding finger in his mouth, wiping a blood-drop from a piece of silvered glass. He'd have to wash up well later if he didn't want tetanus or something equally inconvenient--- who knew what you could catch at a dig? It was just a very old garbage dump, really. He glanced nervously over one shoulder, checking that he was still alone; no problem. Those lazy bums that also called themselves student aids were all still out stuffing their faces. It was dark outside now, and very quiet; the only sound was that of a distant dog's barking, and the sad little noise was lonely in the night. No traffic racket even, not this far up in the hills. Toshii shivered a little for no real reason, hunching his shoulders; for a moment it had felt like someone had walked across his grave.  
  
Only a couple more pieces to fit in--- it looked like they were all here. Hell, his professors should *thank* him for the careful job he was doing; whoever had packed it away hadn't bothered to see if the mirror was complete, that was pretty certain. He gently popped the last little sliver into place; it slotted in with an audible "snap!"  
  
Toshii sat back for a moment, absently sucking on his wounded finger and admiring his work. It sure was a nice piece, put together like that; how many pretty young noblewoman's' faces had been reflected in this little toy? His own face smirked rather sardonically back; he could just put this in the box and say nothing more about it, and no-one would ever know. That was one over on the old farts, wasn't it? He grinned down at himself.  
  
WHAT the fuck----?? The mirror was darkening, reddening, going all crimson like someone had poured paint across it--- oh SHIT, had he screwed it up somehow? It was still sort of silvery, but--- Toshii ran his still-bleeding hand across the fractured glass, smearing it with a remaining droplet---   
  
OH GOD----- OH GOD, WHAT----!?!!*******************************************************************************************************************************************  
  
When the other aids came back from dinner, it took a few moments for them to realize that the burned, ravaged thing in the storage room had been Toshii. But by then they had all started screaming anyway, and they didn't really care.*******************************************************************************************************************************************  
  
On a hillside just beyond the buildings of Tokyo, a young woman sat cross-legged behind a bush, watching the scene below with a frown on her face. She brushed a stray lock of hair back from her eyes, squinting in the late afternoon sunlight as she tried to hear the comments of the policemen a few hundred feet away.  
  
Asako huddled a little lower as one of the men glanced her way; she could see the sunlight reflect off his glasses as his head turned, but she didn't think he had seen her. So many policemen--- she could count six cars from where she was sitting..... And there went another ambulance, sirens off; that probably meant bad news for whoever was inside. It was likely that, for them, haste was no longer of any use.  
  
What in God's name had happened?  
  
She had been coming here for days, watching the dig; the students had gotten used to seeing her up on the hillside--- some of them would wave to her now and then. Asako had wanted desperately to climb down the hill, to take a really *good* look at the site, but..... Not until they asked her to. They were all older; college students for the most part interspersed with the professors in charge. She wasn't going to butt in, not 'til they asked her to. It wasn't that she was shy exactly (this was Asako, after all; she was *never* shy), it was just that---  
  
Asako was..... fascinated.  
  
History was always so *boring* when you were stuck in a classroom listening to the teacher drone on and on. But *this*, this was different. You weren't just hearing dry words about who won this battle or took over that region--- at a dig, you could *touch* the past. When you found a broken piece of pottery in the earth, you were touching something that might not have been seen for hundreds of years--- and yet, there was still that common link of humanity between you and the last person who had touched it.  
  
Clasping her hands around her knees, Asako thought back to a moment when, as a child, she had been poking around up at her grandfather's house high in the hills. There had been a few ruins around, nothing special, mostly tumble-down stone walls. But she had played that they were her kingdom, her fortress to defend, running about with a stick for a sword. And then she had found the broken clay bowl, half-buried under the tall grass at the edge of an old well. The child had picked up the pieces, running her fingers wonderingly along the rain-worn clay.  
  
And underneath, where the pottery had rested against the soil safe from the ravages of the weather, she had found a fingerprint. Just like hers it was really, just like when she stuck her thumb in sticky clay on the riverbank; a fingerprint. It had been made by another person, just like her--- hundreds of years ago.  
  
That moment of wonder had never really passed. And Asako wanted terribly to see the dig, but she wasn't going to go charging down there with her usual forthrightness--- she'd screw things up, she knew she would. So she had watched and waited, hoping.  
  
And now----- what was going on? When she had arrived, things had been cordoned off with "CRIME SCENE -- DO NOT ENTER" tapes and the place was *crawling* with policemen. Of the students that she had watched so eagerly there was no sign at all.....  
  
The policemen were finishing up; she could hear their distant voices and the slamming of car doors as the last few men climbed into their vehicles and started them. Would they leave a guard? No, they must've locked everything up. The lights were off down in the site; beyond it the remains of the old mansion looked incredibly lonely in the red-gold haze of sunset.  
  
As the last car rumbled down the road and around the curve, Asako slowly rose to her feet, dusting her hands against the back of her pants. *No,* she told herself, *I'm not REALLY going to go down into a crime scene, that would be illegal. No, I'm just going to climb down the hillside a little so I can see better..... Well, maybe a little closer than this. I'm only half-way down the hill and my footing's unsteady; they wouldn't want me to fall and hurt myself, would they, those policemen? So I'll go just a little further to the bottom of the hill. That's all.*  
  
The young woman slid to a halt and looked down at her toes; her tennis-shoes were covered with mud from the hillside, slippery on the rocks beside the tangle of haphazard temporary sheds that housed the dig's storage and work areas. She kicked idly at a pebble, watching as it rolled away; maybe she should see about getting some of this mud off before she climbed back up the hill. What if she slipped and hurt herself? There'd be no-one around to help her; surely the police wouldn't want her to do that, now would they? She could just step inside and see if there were some rags around, or maybe a little water.....  
  
*Oh, the hell with it.* The dig had become important to her. She wanted to know what had happened----- She'd just have to be careful. It would be... inconvenient... for her parents to have to bail her out from jail on trespassing charges.  
  
Slowly Asako stepped forward; there was still a little light left in the sky, enough for her to see by; but it would be dark soon--- the surrounding hills blocked a lot of the sunset's afterglow. She frowned a bit, wondering at the disarray around her; tools lay scattered, papers were tossed in all directions..... this was nothing like the ordered chaos that she had been watching for the last few days. Still frowning, she continued to pick her way through the sheds, her footsteps crunching in the dirt underneath.  
  
*Huh; look at that.* She was at the main workshop now, a sturdy Quonset-hut sort of affair meant to house the sorted finds and computer equipment used on the site. Weird--- there were *holes* in the door and walls, holes as big as her head or as small as her fingertip. Had someone been shooting at the building? But..... they almost looked like they had been *gnawed* through.  
  
Asako scrubbed one hand across her face nervously; maybe coming down here hadn't been the brightest of ideas..... Especially now that the sun was pretty much completely behind the hills; it felt..... dark. Darker than it should.  
  
Maybe she should go and get Ushio-kun; something was wrong here--- it was giving her the creeps. He dealt with things like this----  
  
Scowling at her own timidity, Asako knocked one hand against her forehead: Idiot! So Ushio was the Big, Bad Spearbearer; that didn't mean that she should go running to him like a scared rabbit every time she---- What was that?!?  
  
It was a faint hissing, clicking sound, not very loud..... it was coming from inside, from low down. A snake or something?   
Asako swallowed hard and stepped up to one of the larger holes, crouching and peering in.....  
  
The single room beyond was a shambles--- boxes were strewn everywhere, several chairs were overturned, computer equipment was broken into bits--- God, there was even a hole right in the middle of the monitor. Not a cracked, shattered hole, either; it was more like something had taken a bite out of the glass, exposing the circuitry within. But the noise---? It was quiet now, she couldn't see anything that could've made that chattering hiss..... There was something all over the place though, something was..... pooled, dark and sticky-looking on papers, boxes, everything. She could smell it, thick and coppery in the air, mixed with a scent of--- burning?  
  
And all around on the floor she could see outlines marked in antiseptic, clean white tape that screamed 'Official Police Business, Do Not Touch': human outlines. Several of them. But.... they were missing things. Hands, feet, heads.....  
  
WHAT had happened? And she heard it again, a soft, sibilant sound combined with scrapes and gritty noises, like someone combining a fuse and a hand-tool of some sort--- where---?  
  
*!!!* Asako's eyes widened.....  
  
It was coming from BEHIND her---!!! Still crouching, she turned in place very slowly, skin crawling.....  
  
Red. It was red, seeping silently up from crevices in the ground, a thick mist.... no, no, not a mist; it had shining *things* in it, bits of glow like the eyes on a spider, and there were dark spots too, ringed with white.... That was where the sounds were coming from, she thought, frozen in place: from those dark places, from the mouths (she could see them better now, she thought numbly; they were getting bigger, more distinct.....) ringed with teeth, hissing and snapping at her----  
  
Asako yelped, slamming back against the door behind her; then, as if it had been some sort of springboard at a pool, she was suddenly leaping over the red thing, just leaping (*ohgodohgodohgoddon'tletmefall-------*) without a moment of conscious thought. She cleared the thickening red substance with inches to spare--- it was so low to the ground, a good thing too--- she felt something brush and snag the back of her jeans-leg as she landed, and she tore down the length of sheds at a dead run.  
  
Dark, it was *really* dark now, she had to get away------- she was making too much noise to hear if she was being pursued, but it didn't matter. Asako scrambled up the hillside again, slipping and sliding and swearing incoherently; the red thing was behind her, maybe coming after her--- *get OUT of here, you ass, get AWAY from here, just get away, you can figure out what to do when you're safe---*   
  
.....then she looked behind her, and it was there, pooling around the base of the hill; she could just see it in the near-darkness, tiny gleaming eyes floating at random in thick scarlet like fireflies in a fog--- sharp-toothed maws gaping and closing, the clash of teeth drowned out by the thundering of Asako's heart in her ears----   
  
And she reached the top of the hill. But momentum is a powerful thing--- she kept going down the other, more cliff-like side, flailing her arms as gravity won out and pulled her into the air---- crying out, falling like a broken bird-----  
  
..... and then gravity was defeated by a huge, sharp-clawed hand that snagged one ankle, plucking Asako from her trajectory and dangling her head-first over the darkened stones and grass too far below. Her scream cut off in mid-shriek as the air went out of her lungs, "WHOOF!" at the sharp jerk of inertia.  
  
"Stupid girl," hissed the great orange bakemono, still holding her leg carelessly in the grip of a huge thumb and forefinger; "Shut up or I'll drop you!! Do you want THAT to hear you?!?"  
  
Asako snapped her mouth shut, taking in a huge gulp of air as the enormous monster glided silently towards a nearby hillside. *Oh shit,* she thought faintly, watching the ground passing swiftly by below her as she hung upside down; *Tora-----?!?*  
  
************ To be continued**************  
  
Heh heh heh..... Don't you just LOVE cliffhangers?..... Ysabet  
  
  
  



	2. The Sorcerer's Apprentice

The I of the Beholder  
By Ysabet  
  
Disclaimer: Ushio & Tora isn't mine, sure wish it was, but it's not..... It belongs to Kazuhiro Fujita, Shonen Sunday, & whatever other companies happen to be involved. I just like it, & wish the bloody thing stretched beyond 5 volumes of anime and 33 volumes of manga. Sigh.  
  
  
Chapter 2: The Sorcerer's Apprentice   
  
With the bits of her mind that weren't frozen like a rabbit in a car's headlights, Asako knew that she would probably be a lot more comfortable if she shut her eyes. It would be so much better not to see what she was seeing: the shadowy but still-too-clear ground rushing by below her, the tips of trees just barely missing her head, the huge monster that was carrying her as casually as a child dangles a toy.....  
  
It wasn't courage that made her keep her eyes open, or character, or any of those admirable traits; it was sheer, bloody terror.  
  
"Whoosh!!"--- and they were slanting more towards the ground now, coming closer, coming closer---- Asako squawked and tried to pull herself up a little, tried to climb her own body in an effort to keep from getting brained by a rock or something; but inertia won out, and all she could do was hang there upside down until----  
  
--- falling again---   
  
--- "Thump!" and she was rolling over and over on soft, damp grass. Coming at last to a halt, Asako lay sprawled on her back with the world spinning gently around her like an amusement park ride; her heart pounded and she rubbed her palms hard against her closed eyes, fighting dizziness.  
  
"Girl." The single word was spoken by a deep, raspy voice, all too familiar; she removed her hands and blinked up at the darkening heavens. The bakemono loomed between Asako and the dark blue sky, silver eyes peering impatiently down like a pair of baleful stars; pushing his mane from his face, Tora blew out a "hrrrmph" and tapped her with a single sharp talon in the middle of her chest.  
  
"Well? Are you alive or not? And if you are, are you planning to lie there until the Donshoku comes and eats you, soul and flesh alike?" He sat back, crossing his arms; his dark-orange tail switched back and forth in irritation.  
  
The world was still spinning; Asako carefully propped herself up on her hands, blinking up at the monster (God, she always forgot how *big* he was--- he blotted out an awful lot of the sky, didn't he?). "Uhhhhh..... Tora. Tora-san. What, what was *that*? How did you know..... ?" And then, as her thoughts came back into focus: "Where's Ushio?" The girl looked around wildly for the Spearbearer, expecting him to pop up over the next hilltop, long hair flying. But no.... no sight of him.  
  
The bakemono shrugged noncommitally; "Around here somewhere, I suppose." He bared too many teeth briefly, and Asako shrank back a little. "The Brat and I have been hunting; something new is here in my territory..... as you saw." He snorted disdainfully. "That damned Spear told Ushio about it, but too late for the ones back there, eh?" The ancient monster grunted briefly. "I left Ushio on the other side of the ruins to look around; then I saw you running. You were moving fast, girl, but not fast enough, not to get away from THAT."  
  
Asako shivered at the emphasis on 'that' and tried to collect her thoughts. She eyed the huge creature carefully; though she had been involved with Tora via Ushio-kun's adventures as the Spearbearer, she had never quite developed any real trust or fondness for the bakemono. Her instincts regarding danger had always been good--- and they shouted very, *very* loudly when he was nearby. Considering the fact that the monster had saved both her and Mayuko's lives multiple times, Asako realized with a faint pang of guilt that this was probably unfair; but somehow, seeing the sharp teeth and claws always made her feel like..... prey.  
  
Like right now, half-lying here on the ground with wobbly legs and a head full of cartwheels: she felt like a rabbit confronted by a lion.  
  
But the lion had just *saved* the rabbit, and the rabbit had a few teeth of its own. She slowly sat up and climbed gingerly to her feet, squinting off in the direction from which she had come. They had flown farther than she had thought; it was difficult to make out the site, but from what Asako could tell it was at least a mile or so away. A tag-end of memory niggled at her and she turned back to the bakemono, who sat regarding her somewhat sardonically. "Um, Tora-san; you called that thing a.... 'Donshoku'?" Reaching down, she carefully rubbed at her ankle; it was somewhat scratched from her rough rescue, and she saw that her denim jeans-leg was scorched and tattered.  
  
Tora stretched his length across the ground, working his foreclaws in the thick grass for all the world like a giant housecat. "The Seki Donshoku Mono, the Red Devourer. Not something I have dealt with before, but I know of it from tales." The sod shredded and tore under the working claws, and Asako edged a little away, nervous.  
  
She cleared her throat; fear made her feel weak, and now was *not* a good time for weakness. "You also said something about it eating me, um, 'soul and flesh alike', I think? What was that about?" Asako wiped some of the dirt from her face with a scratched hand--- her abrupt landing hadn't exactly been easy on either her skin or her clothes.  
  
The bakemono shrugged, stretching one more time and then drawing himself up to sit on his haunches; he yawned widely. "Just as I said, girl. The Donshoku eats flesh with its teeth and souls with its body..... If you can't get away, it's a bad way to die. It bites and burns----- Those below, the grave-robbers; weren't they eaten?" The monster nodded towards the site.  
  
Asako frowned, annoyance creeping in with her fear; "'Grave-robbers?' What are you talking abou--- oh, you mean the archaeologists? Tora-san, they're not grave-robbers, they--- they dig up old things to preserve them, so we can learn about the people who made them." She bent down to rub at her ankle again; it hurt, though not too badly. ".... eaten?" Asako's breath caught in her throat as she remembered the holes in the walls and the many tooth-ringed mouths; she felt a little sick.  
  
Tora yawned again. "Grave-robbers, whatever. I've seen them many times--- they dig up old tombs and take the gold, if there is any. Sometimes there's not; sometimes they find one of *us*--- as they must have this time." He laughed nastily, a laugh full of teeth; the sound made Asako shiver. She turned away to hide her fear, looking down across the hills towards the site. It was very dark by now, and the stars were coming out overhead. A cool wind swept across the slope, ruffling her short, dark hair and sending the bakemono's dark orange mane whispering across his face. He brushed it aside again with the back of a sharp-clawed hand.  
  
"Rrrrrrrrrrhhhhrrrrrr. What's taking the Brat so long? He should've come out by now....." muttered the monster impatiently, peering through the darkness. Asako hugged her arms around her shoulders, worrying; "Aotsuki you idiot, what are you doing? Be careful....." she whispered to herself, though from the look that Tora gave her he had heard every word. It was hard to read, that look; the great striped face gave away nothing. After a moment he turned away again, staring silently back out over the shadowed landscape; "It will come soon....." she heard him mutter. Then he spoke harshly: "Girl. Go to the shrine. I'll find the Brat." And without warning he gathered his huge limbs beneath him and leaped upwards, soaring impossibly into the air.  
  
Asako crouched down instinctively as the great beast's leap carried him out over the hills towards the site, mane streaming about him. Slowly she straightened, wiping away the cold sweat that had suddenly sprang up on her face. *'Go to the shrine'?* ..... Well, it was as good a direction as any, she supposed, trying to ignore the fear that was biting into her bones with cold, sharp teeth. She wasn't doing any good here, so----- The shrine should be *that* way, no more than a couple of miles.   
  
".... Ushio-kun...." she whispered; there was no-one around to hear her anymore. Shivering a little, she set out across the hills.  
  
******************************************  
  
The walk (more of a run, really) hadn't taken that long, and this was probably a good thing; by the time Asako arrived at the Aotsuki shrine, she was worn out with constantly peering into the night for a trace of drifting scarlet fog. Stumbling a little, she passed under the gate and hurried towards the lit windows of Ushio and his father's home with a pounding heart.  
  
She could hear the television playing inside; at least Shigure, Ushio's father, was home----- and he was a priest, after all; maybe he could do something to help. During her walk through the dark the horrible fate of the archaology team had finally sank in, and it had been all she could do to keep from panicking. Something was out there that not only ate flesh, but *souls* as well-----  
  
Asako rapped on the sliding door, breathing hard. Inside, footsteps sounded across the wooden floor, and the girl blinked in the unaccustomed light as the door slid open. Aotsuki Shigure's spare, calm form stood framed in the doorway; he stared down at her with a vague look of surprise. ".... Asako? Child, what are you doing up here at this time of night?--- Is something wrong?" He stepped back to allow her to pass him, his angular face creasing with concern as he took in her flushed and disheveled condition.  
  
Still panting, she stopped a few feet in from the entrance and turned to face her friend's father. "Oji-san..... Have you seen Ushio? Has he come back here?"  
  
The priest frowned. "..... No; he and Tora-dono went out without a word an hour or so ago; why? Asako, is something wrong---?"  
  
One look at the girl's face was enough. He drew her down to a seat and, while he fixed them both cups of tea, Asako told him what she had seen. Told him about the archaeologists, the police, the red mist, and what Tora had said. Told him about the Seki Donshoku Mono, the very mention of which made his eyes grow cold and bleak. By the time she was finished the tea had grown cool, sitting untouched before them both; and Aotsuki Shigure's face was as dark and grim as any bakemono's.  
  
******************************************  
  
"Hold this" said the priest briskly, handing Asako a small paper bag as they began working their way around the Aotsuki Shrine's outer wall. She looked down at the contents; a package of metal staples (large), a roll of tape, a bundle of ofuda..... The girl stared at the carefully-inscribed warding talismans; she was all for anything innovative, but..... "Umm, Oji-san--- don't you usually *tie* these things on? I mean, a *wall-stapler*?" Asako gestured at the silver device in the priest's hands.  
  
"Tha-WACKKK!!" He stapled another ofuda onto the gatepost at the shrine entrance. "We need to hurry" was all he said in his calm voice, but she could hear an underlying note of --- was it fear? Asako looked back down at the ofuda and ran a finger along the paper edges; how could these things help? This was a waste of time; they were just paper and ink..... But no; by now, she knew better. Things weren't always what they seemed, especially *simple* things; paper and ink might be a very powerful thing indeed, in the right hands.  
  
She passed him another ofuda as they moved around the stone and wooden walls. Asako stared out over the road towards the city's lights, her mind in turmoil; it was so quiet up here, you could almost believe that nothing was wrong. But she knew better about *that*, too. While preparing the ofuda her friend's father had told her a little about the creature that she had seen: the Seki Donshoku Mono, the Red Devourer.  
  
It was something that lived in old things, he had said; much like that centipede creature that had inhabited the stone samurai armor that she had met some time back. But the Donshoku was a rather specific monster; it lived solely in reflective things, mirrors and the like----- and the only real way to be rid of it was to trap its reflection and then break the mirror. Hard to do when it drifted like smoke, and that wasn't the only problem..... Shigure had stopped in his work for a moment, a strangely distant look on his face. Then, carefully drawing another character, he had continued quietly: The Donshoku ate souls. It was, as he said, the Red Devourer, the eater of all things mortal or spiritual; even other bakemonotachi feared it----- even they were not immune to its appetite.  
  
An eater of souls as well as flesh..... horrible thought. As if dying wasn't bad enough! But to lose your *self*, your very essence to another creature's appetite--- that was so bad it didn't bear thinking about. Still, she HAD to think about it.....   
  
For now it had her 'scent', her psychic trace. As gently as possible Oji-san had explained that, once Donshoku began a hunt, it would not stop until it had its victim. And it had begun hunting her..... the priest had questioned her very carefully: Had it followed her at all? And Asako had told him yes, that it had been coming up the hill behind her when Tora had dropped by.   
  
It would find her. It was, Oji-san said quietly, very good at that sort of thing. And there wasn't much that could stop it--- the ofuda would probably slow it down for a few hours, and it hated sunlight; but beyond that..... Asako wiped away a sheen of sweat from her face with one rather shaky hand. There had to be something more they could do; maybe Ushio could-----  
  
Oh. Ushio. *Ushio!!*  
  
"Oji-san?!? What about Ushio-kun----- we need to *find* him, he might need our help-----" Her thoughts were running in little circles by now, and she caught at Shigure's sleeve; he shook his head firmly.  
  
"No." At her look of mingled dismay and anger, he smiled briefly and brushed a lock of hair from the face of the young woman he had known since childhood. "You must understand, little one;" and he gestured towards the ofuda he had just stapled up. "This is to buy you time. The Donshoku *will* come for you, unless my son and Tora-dono have already killed it; and I rather doubt that." Shigure continued walking along the outer wall, searching for another spot to place an ofuda.  
  
His calm was maddening; Asako felt herself becomming flushed with a mixture of anger and fear--- fear for herself, for Ushio, even for Tora..... he *had* saved her, after all. They were coming back around to the shrine gate again, and she opened her mouth to argue, but stopped as Shigure began to attach another ofuda *inside* the walls.....  
  
"Ahh, Oji-san---? Why are you putting them inside as well as outside?" It didn't make sense.  
  
Shigure straightened up, looking away out into the darkness; he seemed to be avoiding her eyes. "Oji-san?"  
  
Reluctantly he faced her. "Yes, well..... Asako, we must prepare for the worst as well as the best." He looked down at the ofuda that he held in his hands, running his fingers across the graceful ink figures. "These--- they are to confine the creature when it passes the outer walls and comes within the shrine."   
  
Not *if* it made it through----- *when*.  
  
She understood. "You mean when it comes to eat me," said the girl clearly, all too calmly. It was as though ice was slowly beginning to form inside her, in her heart and in the marrow of her bones, cold solid crystals; it made it difficult to think clearly past the numbing terror. But suddenly she felt Shigure step up to her, felt him smooth her hair with one gentle hand.  
  
"Asako. I will NOT let the Donshoku eat you, not your body *or* your soul." He smiled down at her crookedly with the calm, wise eyes that she had known all her life. "I AM a priest, you know; I'm not *totally* helpless! This isn't exactly the first monster that I've faced----- Why, I live every day with an ancient terror!" He laughed softly, trying to help.  
  
It did help, a little. After a moment she smiled back rather weakly; "Do you mean Ushio or Tora, Oji-san?" she joked, hoping he would understand----- there was more than one way of saying 'thank you.' And she walked past him to the next section of wall, hoping that the darkness would hide the traces of tears that were beginning to streak her cheeks.  
  
******************************************  
  
They had finished the walls and were walking quietly back towards the house when they both heard a roar: "PRIEST!!!!"  
  
Shigure spun in his tracks, looking back at the gate; from the darkness beyond there was another cry:  
  
"OPEN THESE DAMNED SEALLLLLLSSSSSS!!!!!" The priest took off at a dead run, with Asako trailing behind a close second. When they reached the gate, she skidded to a halt and blinked hard, panting; what in the world---?  
  
Beyond the stone and wooden pillars, filling the street, there seemed to be a sort of----- well, one could call it a ground-bound thunderstorm for lack of a better word. Lightning flashed, but the usual ear-shattering sounds were strangly muffled and muted by something that looked like a thick fog, rolling and shifting, crowded with tiny moving lights..... The noise was still horrendous; and within it all was Tora, leaping about and howling like a maddened tiger. Backing away, Asako could make out the bakemono's eyes and teeth, briefly lit by the lightning crackling from his brow. He roared again, swiping at the fog with his foreclaws----- and then he *screamed*, a sound she had never before heard from the monster. Rearing up on his hind legs, he swung again and again, retreating a little with every slash towards the gate-----  
  
And then Asako saw the mouths in the fog, and how the lightning framed everything in *red*, as though filtered through a scarlet lense: the Donshoku-----  
  
"OPEN-THE-SEALS!!!! OPEN THEM!!!! GODS *DAMMIT*, PRIEST!!!! RrrrrrrrraaaaaaAAHHHHHHRRRRRRR!!!!!"   
  
Wall-stapler in hand, Shigure reached the gate and tore away three of the ofuda; he leaped aside just in time to keep himself from being run over by the bakemono, who shot through the opening in the shrine's wards like a cork from a bottle. Asako jerked back; Tora was carrying something--- was that *Ushio* on his shoulder?!?  
  
Shigure was hastily reattaching the ofuda, "Tha-WACKK!"--- she could hear him behind her; but as Tora collapsed in a panting heap on the ground, her eyes were all for the sprawled, black-haired shape half-hidden in his mane..... "USHIO!!"  
  
He wasn't moving.  
  
Asako reached him just as his limp body began to slide off; with a total disregard for the growling orange heap of monster beneath him, she eased the boy gently onto the ground. He was still clutching the Spear tightly--- in fact, he had it wound in his arms, held close to his body like a lover; that was the only tension anywhere on him. All of his other bloodied and battered limbs were loose and sprawling, relaxed as death. But he *was* breathing, slow and steady, his mouth slack and showing his sharpened canines-----? He was still in his Spearbearer form! But..... he was unconcious. WHAT---?  
  
Behind her a rattling, hissing yowl made the hair stand up on the nape of her neck; she turned her head to see a wall of red surging and beating against the entrance to the shrine. The monster outside the gate was casting rapidly back and forth, cruel mouths snapping in rage within its scarlet mists as it pressed up against the unseen barrier provided by the ofuda. Shigure stood before the gate, breathing hard.   
  
And as Asako stared at the Donshoku, she felt the scattered, drifting eyes *fix* on her, riviting its attention on her, on its *prey*-----  
  
Tora dragged himself to his feet, taking sharp, painful-sounding gasps of breath. Looking up past her friend's limp form Asako saw that he was clutching his side, and that there was--- something? Not blood?--- pouring from it; something bright, like liquid fire; it pooled thickly on the ground like a spill of mercury, then faded away into the soil. That wasn't to say that Tora *wasn't* streaked with blood here and there; his orange hide was looking distinctly the worse for wear. The bakemono hissed like a boiling tea kettle at the thing at the gate, then jerked his head towards the main shrine. "Inside, NOW! That will hold the Donshoku for a little while, at least..... but not forever." He stumbled to his feet and lurched towards the building, limping badly.  
  
******************************************  
  
Inside the central shrine all was brightly lit; lamps and candles burned, their tiny flames flickering in the incense-scented air. Peace permeated the very walls.  
  
But there was nothing peaceful about the bedraggled group that sprawled in various states of disarray on the smooth wooden floor.  
  
Of them all, Shigure had faired the best; somewhat out of breath he knelt over his son, brushing the long strands of midnight-black hair back from the angular face. Ushio was scratched and battered, his clothes torn here and there; a faint scent of acidic scorching wisped up smokelike from the damaged cloth. He lay limp as a doll, his head pillowed on Asako's lap; her fingers followed the path Shigure's had, unconciously stroking dark tangles from the closed eyes.  
  
She reached for the Spear, intending to loosen his tight grip and lay it aside, but stopped at Tora's fierce gesture: "Don't. Not if you wish to see him wake." Frowning, Asako looked at the bakemono; "Why not?" she demanded. "He doesn't look too hurt--- why does he have to keep hold of the Spear?" The lights of the shrine were beginning to bring back her courage; she hadn't realized out there in the dark how much she had been craving *light*, simple light. After a moment she noticed what her hands were doing--- Ushio's long, dark strands were tangled in her fingers--- and she stopped, flushing.  
  
The ancient monster was curled up around himself, holding one huge hand against the still-leaking wound in his side; his eyes were closed. "The Brat needs to keep that damned Spear close by because---" and he licked at a rip on one shoulder, "--- he's inside it." He licked at it again, hissing a little in pain.  
  
Shigure frowned, placing a hand on his son's forehead. "*Inside* it? How can that be?"  
  
Tora shrugged, wincing noticeably. "It took his spirit inside when that bastard Donshoku tried to eat him; I felt it. I suppose it doesn't want him eaten----- they're linked, after all." He tried to twist around to get a better look at his side, a grimace of anguish briefly crossing his striped face.  
  
Asako stared down at her friend, absently stroking his forehead again; when she noticed what she was doing, she didn't stop this time. *Ushio-kun, you idiot.....* His face was very pale, oddly empty-looking; was his spirit really somewhere in the Spear? It lay so close to him--- he held it as if his life depended on it, sharp-nailed hands tight in a white-knuckled grip. Carefully Asako ran her fingertips across the blade; it was cold, unnaturally so--- it numbed her skin a little. And it felt so---- it felt so----  
  
---- so -----  
  
(she was falling down, down into blackness, down towards the tiny spark of fire far, far below, down-----)  
  
SMACK!..... And Asako's head was ringing and her cheek stung; she lay half-fallen backwards, one hand to her face, staring up at Shigure. "W-what..... what was *that* for?!?" she stuttered, angry and a little dazed.  
  
Shigure sighed and looked apologetic. "Child..... you were leaving us; the Spear was taking *you* in *too*." He sat back, running long fingers through his dark grey hair. "I assume this means that we will be able to reach Ushio later----- if we survive this, that is. In the meantime....." He climbed to his feet and went over to one of the shrine's cabinets, pulling open a drawer and bringing out several long strands of juzu: rosaries, sacred beads. Stooping, he gently took his son's limp form from Asako, carrying him over and placing him on the floor before the main shrine. Methodically the priest began to wrap the Spearbearer and the Spear with the juzu, strand after strand. "This should keep him as safe as anything, I suppose....."  
  
He stood; at his feet, Ushio lay like a parcel ready for postage; Asako stifled a moment of hysterical laughter at this image and also rose briskly to her feet. "Right," she said, dusting her hands on her sides. "What shall we do next, Oji-san?"  
  
Tora spoke up from where he had lain watching the whole procedure with an unreadable expression. "You--- Priest---- you had best stay here with Ushio-Brat. And you--- girl-----" he pointed with one sharp talon, "----- I've an idea for you. Come with me." He climbed carefully to all fours, favoring his side.  
  
Asako frowned, shooting a glance at Shigure; he raised one eyebrow and shook his head, as much in the dark as she. "Ahhh, Tora-dono, what of your injuries?" the priest asked, slipping a strand of juzu around his own neck. "Your worst wound--- that does not look like blood....."  
  
The bakemono snorted once and twisted his head around to look at the wound; it was still leaking silvery, shining fire that ran in liquid drops to vanish on the floorboards. "Not blood. Life. It is how we are, we bakemonotachi; after all, we are mostly spirit----- Of course, some of us are more *solid* than others....." He sighed, a hiss of pain; he glanced at the two humans and showed his teeth briefly in an expression that had nothing to do with humor. "That is why I *HATE* creatures like the Seki Donshoku Mono so very much..... they can do more damage to my sort than even that shit of a Spear."  
  
"Hhhrrrrrrrrrrr...... I need to heal. And it may be that I can, and swiftly, too..... We have a little while; it will take the Donshoku an hour or two to break through your seals-----" He shot a darkly approving glance at Shigure; "----- Not a bad piece of work, Priest."  
  
"So----- come with me, girl. You can help." And with that the bakemono moved slowly through the shrine, limping as he stepped out into the yard. Asako shared a doubtful glance with Shigure, then shrugged and followed.  
  
******************************************  
  
As Asako followed the monster out into the yard, she looked nervously around; nothing, just the darkness below the almond trees. No red fog, no floating eyes, no snapping mouths----- not yet.  
  
Not yet. The wind made soft, ghostly sounds as it blew through the leaves; she shivered and walked towards Tora, who sat in front of the old shrine entrance watching her silently. He stared for a long moment and they both stood there, listening to the wind; his silver eyes reflected the dim starlight like a cat's, lambent mirrors in the darkness. Then the monster sighed, muttered something that she couldn't quite catch and stepped forward into the building.  
  
So much--- well, so much *junk*! Asako recalled that the old shrine had fallen into disuse several centuries past, and apparently it had been relegate to the duties of storehouse ever since. Poor Tora----- for five hundred years he had been stuck in the basement of this place! She still didn't trust the bakemono alltogether, but she could *definitely* feel sorry for him. And there it was----- a dark, gaping hole in the floor; she could just see the stone stairs going down into the blackness. Thankfully they were passing it by; whatever Tora had in mind, it wasn't down there..... and she was glad.  
  
Where *were* they going? They were winding through the boxes, baskets and unidentifyable objects towards the back of the building; it was quite dark, and she sneezed as dust made its presence known in the air. "Um, Tora-san? Where are we going?"  
  
The bakemono was silent a moment, then replied gruffly "Here. This will do well enough." They had come to a far corner of the building, where the boxes had been shoved aside to form an open space; not a very big one, but big enough for, say, a large orange monster to nap in..... Asako stopped, looking around a bit warily. Faint shafts of light filtered in from outside through cracks in the ancient building's upper walls; there was just enough light to see by. The girl turned to look at the monster, who was regarding her with equal wariness..... There was something *odd* about the way he looked; if she didn't know better, she would say that he was---- uneasy? Nervous?  
  
The monster---- well, fidgeted; that was the only thing Asako could think to call the uncomfortable way he glanced up at her and then away, limping restlessly across the dusty floor. With a growl rumbling deep in his chest Tora finally swung around to look at her directly, fixing his silver eyes on hers.  
  
"Girl..... " he stopped for a moment, then went on, his expression fierce and yet a little pained. "I do not usually do this, this *explaining*--- I usually just--- but you are close to Ushio-Brat, and....." Tora looked to one side with a face as dark as thunder, seemingly irritated with himself. He ran a clawed hand through his mane, muttering under his breath ".....never bothered about this sort of thing *before*...." as he carefully lay down on the cold stone, favoring his wounded side.  
  
Asako watched him for a moment, wondering just what the hell the bakemono was trying to say. She didn't need this; she was frightened and exhausted enough as it was, and *now* she was getting annoyed as well.  
  
"Ummm..... does it have something to do with your wound? Is there something I can do to help you?" She was still nervous of the great beast, but she hated to see *anything* suffer, even huge bakemono who were too full of themselves. Asako stepped a little closer, wondering; she wished she had Mayuko's lack of fear for things large and furry, but--- still, if Tora needed help, what could she do? She didn't know anything about monster first-aid.....  
  
Tora snorted; "Funny you should mention that, girl," he said softly and with a certain dark humor. "It's as I said; I am, in my way, more vulnerable to damage by the Donshoku than you----- and there is only one thing that will heal me quickly enough that I can save myself and the Brat from being devoured." His silver eyes glinted in the dimness with a certain predatory light, and Asako suddenly had a bad feeling about where this conversation was going-----  
  
She took a step back; she couldn't help it. Fear was beginning to drown out her annoyance; there was something about that look on his face..... Asako started to speak, but Tora held up a huge hand.  
  
"Girl----- *You* are what I need. I need your life--- your flesh and blood. I need *food.*" And the bakemono growled softly, long and low, a rumble of thunder shaking the dusty room.  
  
Asako took another step back, feeling the monster's eyes boring holes into her. "---?!?" She tried to say something, but the words died in her throat as Tora rose, moving towards her with unmistakable intent.  
  
His eyes were colder now, terrible, the eyes of an an animal but with all the intelligence of a monster: sudden death incarnate. "I need human flesh and blood and life to heal; nothing else will close my wounds." He stepped forward-----  
  
Stalking her. *No.....*  
  
Terrified, Asako backed up until she bumped into a wall, then lost her balance and slid down it, eyes fixed on the predator before her. The huge beast took another step, rumbling low in his throat; his teeth shone white in the shadows as he snarled. "Hhhhhrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr.....If I were inclined to be sorry, girl, I might be; you are not so stupid as most humans. But that's just too bad."  
  
And the monster moved towards her, teeth bared.....  
  
*********************************************************************************************************************************************  
  
This exciting episode was brought to you by "Cliffhangers R Us", a brand of YsabetCo.  
Stay tuned for next week's exciting adventure when Asako tries to talk Tora into vegitarianism as an alternate lifestyle....... =^_^=  



	3. Alchemy

Disclaimer: It's mine! It's all mine! I'm actually Kazuhiro Fujito in a VERY GOOD DISGUISE!!! Oh, what's that you say? It's time for my medication? Awwwwwwww...... Seriously, folks: Ushio & Tora springs from the massively creative cranium of Kazuhiro Fujito &, presumably, belongs to him and whatever other affiliated companies happen to be involved. Hey, lighten up; it's only the Universe......  
  
  
Chapter 3: Alchemy  
By Ysabet  
  
  
"You helped me before..." whispered the girl, trying to backpedal away from the deadly creature that loomed so large over her. "Why not now?" Asako swallowed hard, keeping her eyes fixed on Tora's terrible silver gaze--- it was better than looking at his teeth, or his claws; the bakemono stared down at her, sharp eyes slitting briefly.  
  
"That was then, girl. This is now, and I wasn't wounded then." A thought seemed to strike the monster then and he sat back a little, considering. Then he leaned over her again and spoke:  
  
"I'll tell you what: As you are Ushio-brat's friend, I will kill you quickly so you won't suffer; that way I can eat you and defeat this bastard. Then the Donshoku won't get your soul, my territory, or Ushio either for that matter." Tora smiled down at his prey, pleased with the dreadful logic of his proposal.  
  
Asako squeaked, scooting back until she thumped hard into the rough stone wall; Tora stepped forward, a single huge hand on either side of her shivering form. *Think, think--- there's gotta be a way to talk him out of this---* She drew in a deep breath and looked directly up into the bakemono's terrible face.  
  
"And-- and what'll you do when Ushio finds out? He'll come after you with the Spear, and you'll *wish* you were dead..... You'll wish you were still stuck down in that basement with the Kemono No Yari through you!" She tried to keep her voice calm; showing fear right now might be a very fatal mistake.  
  
Tora hissed softly, obviously struck by her words; he blinked. "Rrrrrrrrrr. True enough, he does like you. And the stupid boy gets angry over *every* little thing!........ Hhhhrrrrm. I suppose he would come after me." He settled a little, carefully resting his wounded side on the cold stone floor, propping his chin on one hand. "But--- I am too weak to fight the Donshoku right now; I need power. I need YOU." The bakemono shrugged; "Looks like I'll have to eat you after all." and he leaned forward, silver eyes fixed on Asako's. She shrank away, her throat tight with fear.  
  
And then Tora stopped for a moment, tilting his striped face slightly, reflective. "Still..... You are bright enough from what I've seen, girl. If you can think of another way to handle this, then perhaps--- No? Well, then." He stepped forward again.  
  
"...Be still a moment; this will be over quickly...." And the monster raised a hand full of claws. "..... Unless you've thought of something----?"  
  
"NO!! WAIT--- I, I've got a better idea---" Asako flinched back, trying to keep death at bay; Tora paused, eyeing her dubiously. "What? It had best be worth my while, little human; my solution is so simple." But he lowered his claws.  
  
She thought frantically. "You.... need to get your strength back, right? And you do that when you eat human flesh and blood, right?" *Keep talking, Asako, keep talking. While you're talking you're not dead.* "So, do you need--- a lot?"  
  
The monster frowned again. "Not really, girl. A bite or so, no more; it is not the amount of what I eat--- it's the life in it that I need to heal. Why?" Now she had the bakemono's attention; he cocked his head to one side, interested.  
  
Asako pushed herself up on her hands, sliding back up to sit with her back against the wall. One palm stung with the roughness of the stone; she looked down at it, rubbing the fingers unconciously together. "What if.... what if I gave you s-something freely? I mean, if I gave you.... some of my blood.... would *that* be enough to help you?" She tried not to think too much about what she was suggesting.  
  
"Hrrrmm?" The monster seemed almost taken aback.  
  
******************  
  
Tora looked hard at the girl; she *seemed* serious, but humans were chancy creatures at best. Was she actually suggesting that she sacrifice part of her life to him? That seemed insane from a bakemono's viewpoint.... but she WOULD live if she did that; perhaps the bargain felt like a worthwhile thing to her. And..... *sacrificed* life, *sacrificed* blood freely given--- well, he WAS a bakemono, after all; there were rules about such things-----  
  
He could gain a lot more from something freely given than from simple human prey. It was oddly fitting, too, here in this place just above his old prison..... And he was hurting; he wanted to heal.  
  
Running one hand gingerly along the large gash in his side, Tora nodded, impressed in spite of himself. This human was braver than most, almost foolhardily so--- she reminded him of Ushio-brat. No wonder they fought so well together..... He looked at her hard. "Well. If you did *that*, then you could live, I suppose. But it will have to be NOW, girl; I need my strength back quickly. The Seki Donshoku Mono will find us sooner or later." He sat back a little, allowing the human room to move. If she tried to run.....  
  
But instead she only got to her feet unsteadily, breathing hard, looking around the junk-filled room. "O...kay. Give me a minute."  
  
******************  
  
Asako gulped; she was going to have to go through with this or she would be dog-food. Monster-food. Well, she thought a little hysterically, if she went through with it *part* of her would be monster-food ANYway..... But it was better than dying. Let's see..... sharp, she needed something sharp. And a bowl or something. She began searching through the dusty debris of decades, feeling the bakemono's silver eyes following her every move.  
  
After a few moments she had found what she needed in a cracked pottery bowl and a broken bottle; the glass shards were plenty sharp enough to do the job. Staring down at what she held, Asako felt her heartbeat calming..... it was always this way for her. If she had a plan, if she knew a way to do something, she could follow through; it was the uncertainties that gave her problems. But she knew what she had to do--- and she could do this.   
  
She *could* do this. She had to.  
  
Tora watched her as she knelt down beside him on the dusty floor; Asako rolled her left jacket-cuff back a bit and looked blankly down at her wrist. Frowning, she used the shard of glass to rip a length from the bottom of her rather abused t-shirt to use as an improvised bandage; then she sat back on her heels and looked him squarely in the face.  
  
"Okay. I'll give you what I can spare--- it won't be much. You said you don't need much, right?" Her hand was shaking as she laid the sharp edge of glass edgewise across her wrist. The bakemono blew out a breath; he seemed slightly surprised at the fact that she was actually going to go through with this. Sitting up carefully, Tora pointed a single taloned claw at her face.  
  
"No, girl, not much; but you must *say* what you are doing--- this is a sacrifice, after all." That made her pause; a 'sacrifice'? Well, she supposed it was, actually. But--- "Umm, why? I mean, why is that important?"  
  
The monster grinned, sharp teeth reflecting the dim starlight coming in through the shattered doors. "Bakemonotachi have their own laws about sacrifices. We gain more power from something willingly given than we do from something we take. But you have to tell the elements what you are doing; it makes the sacrifice real." He sat up rather painfully, one hand holding his injured side, staring at her expectantly; the bakemono seemed almost cheerful, like a kid waiting for a promised treat.  
  
*Tell the elements? What's he think I am, a miko?* But..... Okay. Asako drew a deep breath, looking down at the shining bit of glass and the pottery bowl. Then she spoke, addressing the air firmly: "Umm. Uh...... I, Nakamura Asako, give this blood to Tora--- " ("'Nagatobimaru'" hissed the monster, making her start) "--- ah, Nagatobimaru the bakemono as a gift so that he can heal himself and defeat our enemy. I'm saying this so the elements can hear me." She concentrated for a moment, remembering..... "Wood, water, fire, metal and stone, do you hear me? This is mine, and I'm giving it to him!" And she quickly drew the shard of glass *hard* across her wrist.  
  
It didn't hurt quite as much as she thought it would--- and then it did, and her eyes watered. The blood ran in a small stream rather than in drops; the glass had been sharp and she had cut herself deeply. Asako watched, almost hypnotized by the dark flow that filled the bowl; beside her Tora was as still as stone. One inch.... one and a half..... two..... The dark rivulet splashed flecks high on the sides of the bowl; they looked black in the dim light. Two and a half..... She was beginning to feel a little dizzy now--- careful, not *too* much. But the cold pottery was warming in her hand and the shard of glass slipping from her fingers to fall, "plink!" onto the harsh stone beneath her knees. Three..... Three and a half..... Four. The bowl was three-quarters full and her vision was beginning to swim--- it would be a terrible pity if she dropped it. *Better stop now, Asako.*  
  
With shaking fingers she placed the bowl on the ground between herself and Tora, groping for the scrap of cloth; her fingers fumbled as she tied it tightly around her wrist--- would it stop the bleeding? Apparently so. Well, that was done. Giddy with a combination of blood-loss and incipient hysteria, she laughed a little and said to the monster, "Well, drink it--- don't let it get cold....."  
  
******************  
  
Tora shifted uncomfortably, staring at the pale girl beside him with curious silver eyes. No-one had ever done anything like this for him before, not in all his centuries----- a sacrifice? For *him*? How..... peculiar. Humans were very strange things. The monster carefully scooped up the small bowl.  
  
Ahhhhhhh, he could feel the power of intent, of *will* radiating out with the liquid's heat; so much strength in this little mouthfull! He drank it down like milk----- it was fragrant and salt-sweet, and the bakemono sighed as warmth and power slowly spread through his limbs with a slow, lazy thoroughness. The wound in his side throbbed painfully, but Tora could feel his flesh healing, could feel it knitting under the influence of the sacrifice. For a moment he closed his eyes, still gripping the bowl; humans had such *power* in them, stupid as they were! And this girl..... courage had its own unique strength and savor. He had fully intended to eat her; after all, what was she to him? But now all he could feel was a strange, unaccustomed sense of gratitude as his hurts lessened and the burning in his side cooled and dwindled from deadly, draining heat to a bearable ache---  
  
He opened his eyes; she was slumped back on her heels, grasping her bandaged wrist loosly. *Her* eyes were almost closed, in sleep or in faintness, he couldn't tell. "Girl. Are you well?"  
  
Blinking, she turned to look at him; there was no fear in her eyes, just weariness. "I'm okay, I guess..... just a little dizzy." The human sighed, then sagged back to sit against the wall. "Tired..... Did it help?"  
  
"Oh yes. It is working..... I will need a little time to rest and heal. Then I will hunt again..... You should rest too, girl, or you'll be of no use" he said gruffly, noting her pallor. Whether she knew it or not, she had given him a little of her life's energy along with her blood; her words to the elements had affected her, too. Tora reached out a long arm, catching her shoulder and pulling her down onto the floor; the girl stiffened and resisted for a moment, but her limbs were limp with fatigue and the results of prolonged terror. With a sigh she relaxed suddenly, curling against his side.   
  
The bakemono looked down at her; he could feel her life running through her body like a river--- some of it coursed through him now in vivid, warm little waves. Well, that was how he had been told by other bakemonotachi that it was like with sacrifices; you found yourself bound to the one who gave to you for a while. He couldn't eat her now..... Stupid human, stupid brave little human, to do such a thing. She really *was* a lot like Ushio-brat. With a sigh of his own, Tora settled down to sleep for a bit; they were safe enough for a short while, and they both needed the rest.  
  
******************  
  
Asako lay very still against the bakemono's warm fur, her eyes closed; her thoughts were muzzy with exaustion, but sleep evaded her for the moment.  
  
*Stupid, stupid, stupid; what are you doing, lying here against a monster? He was going to EAT you a little while ago, you know..... But I feel so weird--- when I gave him my blood and he drank it, I felt almost like.... I don't know; like--- I could almost hear him saying something, something like 'I won't hurt you now, you're safe'. Is that stupid or what?* She could feel the heavy heart beating beneath the thick fur, hear the monster breathing; Tora smelled.... rather like the lions at the Tokyo Zoo, dark and musky; and there were other scents too, earth and ozone and a strange, wild tang. She had been so *afraid* of him--- where had her fear gone? Into the bowl with her blood? Or was she just too tired to be afraid anymore? She really was so very, very tired..... Something had gone into the bowl besides her blood, she was sure of that; maybe that was what the 'talk to the elements' bit had been about--- 'making the sacrifice real.' She'd have to ask Oji-san.....  
  
Sleep. She needed sleep now. It was almost funny..... Here she was, all curled up against something that had almost been her death; and she was feeling safer than she had all night.  
  
******************  
  
Outside the wind rattled through the almond leaves like someone running a stick across the spokes of a wheel; Shigure frowned, looking from the main shrine's doorway into the darkened yard. As if they needed somthing else, it looked as though a storm was approaching.  
  
His steady grey eyes scanned the shadows beyond the gate: nothing, not a trace of scarlet. Yet he could feel it, could feel the Seki Donshoku Mono beating itself against the shrine's defenses--- it was almost like a scent in the air, something acrid and harsh, something that made the soul want to tuck its tail and run. Against the rising sounds of wind the priest muttered a half-audible prayer to himself and whoever might be listening, then slid the door closed.  
  
He knelt by his son; the Spearbearer (it was hard to think of him as Ushio really, looking like this; Shigure was half-ashamed to admit it, but there it was) lay still and silent, wrapped securely in the juzu. His chest rose and fell, his heart beat--- but where was he, really? Inside the piece of cold, cold metal that even now lay misted with a layer of frost, bound by the beads across the boy's chest? Shigure shook his head and pulled his jacket a little closer around him.  
  
Speaking of which..... if he was going to act the priest, he might as well look the part. The older man rose and went to a closet in a small side room, pulling out a set of robes and his priest's staff. As he shrugged his shoulders into the robes Shigure wondered if there was something else he could be doing----- just wrapping the boy in beads (even *those* beads) probably wasn't enough; hmmmmmmm...... Well, there were ofuda he could try, or.....   
  
Oh. It was a bit... extreme... but why not? A rather grim smile crossed his face, and he walked back into the main shrine again to pull open another drawer in a small cabinet there. An array of small, spiked objects lay before his eyes; nodding approvingly, Shigure selected several and set to work. The priest chuckled a little despite the seriousness of the matter, pushing his grey hair back from his face; sometimes it was good to be clever.  
  
******************  
  
Against the walls of the Aotsuki shrine the shadows moved, questing, sniffing like a dog. The Seki Donshoku Mono had no concept of either time nor surrender----- really, it was a fairly simple creature. Things broke down eventually, creatures lost their edge of speed or power, they despaired or succumbed to the Donshoku's lures..... All things became food for the Red Devourer's appetite. All it needed was patience and darkness; and there were many hours yet until sunrise.  
  
******************  
  
"There," breathed Shigure, relaxing and wiping sweat from his forehead. All done.  
  
The Spearbearer still lay in a quiet heap before the shrine, wrapped in juzu..... but now something had been added. Three bronze dorje had been carefully hammered upright into positions equidistant around him, outlining a square--- or they would be, that is, if a fourth one had been placed. Instead it lay loose on the ground beside the mark that would later receive it; the priest shuddered at the damage he had been forced to inflict on the shrine floor, but it had been necessary. When the moment was right he would add the fourth dorje, and Ushio would be surrounded by the strongest protection his father could muster.  
  
Shigure could only hope that it would be enough.  
  
After all, there was the *other* little problem..... the Seki Donshoku Mono had one other weapon, one that no sacred object or charm could dispel: its effect on the human psyche. The priest closed his eyes briefly, feeling a faint thrill of panic running along his nerves; should he have warned Asako-chan? Or Tora-dono? It was unlikely that they would ever be in a position to have to worry about that aspect of their enemy--- by the time it got *that* close, it would be too late.  
  
But still.....  
  
Shigure sat down crosslegged on the smooth floor, watching the candleflames flickering; he could hear the first patterings of rain against the tiles of the roof. The storm would be here soon. He sighed, thinking back to what he had been told about the Donshoku. As a soul-eater, it was attracted to *strong* personalities, powerful minds and emotions; and as such it was equipped in its own unnatural way to deal with the natural defenses of said personalities..... through their dreams.  
  
It seduced; it promised, lured, cossetted and persuaded, with never a word said (or so the old stories told). When it found prey that it could not digest, it lulled them into unconciousness and entered their dreams, offering them *everything* they could desire---- all their fantasies fullfilled. Oh, not necessarily the fantasies of the body (though those were certainly offered), but the also the *little* things, the moments of instant gratification: a spiteful co-worker reduced to humbleness, an unwanted rival disposed of, one's personal gloriousness recognized by one's peers..... all the momentary wishes that occur in the heart that are dismissed as petty, unworthy. But they still occurred----- and every wish, every desire was a door for the Donshoku. And it was *particularly* good at finding the doors that weren't shut *quite* as well as one might wish.   
  
And then it HAD you; your longed-for beloved would hold out her hand, spurning your rival---- and you would take her hand in your dream, and find yourself in the worst possible of hells.  
  
The priest looked over at his son; the Spearbearer's eyes were closed, his face oddly empty and vacant. For a moment Shigure's heart wrenched in his chest, the anguish of a father for his son breaking through his priest's detachement; but..... only for a moment. Then his eyes cleared, his face calmed; panic was only food for the Donshoku. He WAS a priest, after all; he could at least pray......  
  
And as the wind outside whipped sharp gusts of rain against the thin walls, he did just that. After all, what else could he do?  
  
******************  
  
The darkness could feel something..... slipping. There was a gap beginning to open----- it surged forward, hungry and red-----  
  
----- as the wind pulled a single ofuda from its staple over the gate; the shred of white disappeared into the shadowy sky like the last spark from a dying fire.....  
  
******************  
  
Asako started awake, feeling something warm and furry move past her; she slid bonelessly back and thudded onto cold stone---- *what the---- Oh; ohhhh......* and all the events of the past evening came flooding in. NOW what?..... what was that *noise*?!?  
  
It hurt the ears; a painful, shrill multi-tones whine, rising above the rattle of windborn rain like some horrible siren. The girl shrank back, covering her ears as the tones swept all of sleep's muzziness painfully away; where was Tora?----- There, moving through the junk and debris, knocking everything aside in his rush; she could hear the low, eager rumble of his growl even over the hideous whining sound. Asako clambered stiffly to her feet; her side was numb where it had been against the cold stone for--- how long had they slept? Never mind. She staggered forward, her footsteps faltering at the sound of Tora's sudden, furious roar........  
  
******************  
  
Shigure jumped; had he drifted to sleep, sitting there at his prayers? The priest gripped his staff and rose to his feet with a fluidity that belied his years, thudding across the floor towards the shrine entrance. Merciful Buddha, what was that *noise*?!?-----  
  
He slammed open the door, nearly shivering the wooden tracks into splinters---- to look upon a scarlet, many-mouthed Nightmare.  
  
The Seki Donshoku Mono had come, and all Hell was breaking loose...........  
  
*******************************************************************************************************************************************  
  
Heh heh heh...... yet another cliffhanger. Get used to it! But I'll make it up to you; guess what? You can find the Ushio & Tora manga STATESIDE at www.planetanime.com for pretty cheap. Does that help? My friend B-ko found 'em there! Stay tuned for our next exciting episode..... where you'll learn the origin of the Beast Spear, straight from the manga's mouth (as well as finding out whether or not Our Heros get to be Dish of the Day. Filet of Soul, anyone?)............. Evil Ysabet  
P.S.: Oh yeah, one last thing, for those of you who are esoterically minded--- the 'calling on the elements' bit. That's not a goof, my not using the usual Earth, Air, Fire and Water; in most Asian philosophies there are FIVE elements instead: Wood, Water, Fire, Metal and Stone. I chose to follow that instead, for purposes of anal retentivity............. Picky Ysabet  
  
  
  



	4. Bindings and Illusions

Disclaimer: You all know the drill----- the monster is mine, but nobody else is! The rest all belong to Kazuhiro Fujita, who is a fiendishly evil plotter and actually one of the Secret Masters of Fandom (now THERE's an old reference for you). Ahem. Don't sue me.  
And, just to let you know..... the origin of the Beast Spear (as told herein) is DIRECTLY from the pages of the manga! Right from the horse's mouth..... I figured, 'Hey, why not?' So there you go. I left out the smaller details (like WHY U & T ended up 2,000 years in the past and all that), but it is correct in the basics. Enjoy!  
  
  
  
Chapter 4: Bindings and Illusions  
  
  
Red is the color of warning.  
  
Red lights mean 'stop', red cones on a road mean 'beware', red flames mean 'burning'...... Red means keep-away, go-no-further, watch-out, be-afraid.  
  
And the red blood inside? It means all of these things, when released. *Especially* 'stop'.  
  
***************************************  
  
The ancient bakemono *roared* as he burst through the jagged doorway to the old shrine, eyes burning white. His talons were outstretched eagerly to rend and tear the thing that was winding its way through the gate like some sort of hell-spun tangle of scarlet yarn. "RRRRRRRHHHHHHAAAAAAAAAAAAARRRRRRHHHHHH!!!" he screamed, hatred shattering the air.  
  
Tora had something *special* planned for THIS enemy; it had *hurt* him!  
  
As Asako stumbled to the old shrine entrance, he began; clearing the scarlet drifts of mouths and eyes in a single leap, he barred the way out, laughing harshly. Then, hissing like rain on a forge the monster raised his huge hands high, lightning crackling from talon-tip to talon-tip--- lightning that behaved as no lightning should. This time, rather than exploding outwards, it.... RAN. It trickled in electric eye-watering streams down the length of his arms, across his body, quivering like a live thing from the tip of every hair until Tora was sheathed in fire, wrapped in a second skin of white-hot, shining death.  
  
He could *HURT* the Donshoku now---- and, from the way it dodged his first strike, it knew it. It wheeled in the air, scarlet tentacles whipping angrily about, mouths snapping and shrilling their fury. Shigure shouted something unintelligible from the main shrine steps, flinging something overhead towards the gate: a dorje, impaling a single ofuda. The seal smacked into the wood, binding the Donshoku in-----  
  
Tora laughed again, deep and wicked, each tooth sparking with fire. He looked impossibly huge, every hair standing out straight and stiff with current; his claws were lightning themselves as he raked them along a curling arm, which reared back in pain before wrapping around his wrist. The bakemono howled in turn as red blood arced out in a glittering spray..... Beyond him, the priest took careful aim with his dorje, sending one shooting across the yard to impact on a single gleaming eye. The thing screeched in a dozen voices, slashing at him; he cried out as blood bloomed across his leg--- he hadn't been quite fast enough to avoid the edge of a gaping mouth. Shrilling with this new taste, the Donshoku surged forward.....  
  
..... only to be blocked by a lightning-bright handful of claws. Tora growled something hissing and dripping with menace, something in a dialect so old that even Shigure couldn't quite understand it; the beast spread his arms wide, gathering power, gathering power, releasing it-----  
  
"KA-BOOOOOOOOOMMMMM!!!!"  
  
The air was rent apart, ripping like silk in a terrific cataclysm of sundered substance; an echoing roll of thunder shivered through the yard, rattling the tiles on the roofs. The Donshoku seemed to..... *dance*, quivering apart into particles of scarlet, tongues of angry red fire..... and then to reform, darker red than before. Its eyes were wide, glowing; each mouth gaped and hissed, shrill whines of hatred promising anguish and extinguishment.  
  
And then it seemed to pause, to turn; it had seen Asako, half-hiding at the edge of the old shrine, her hands covering her mouth. She was staring in terror at her nightmare, the thing that ate souls and wanted HERS as it gathered itself up to charge. A crackle of lightning distracted it for a moment, and Asako unfroze enough to thud past at a dead run towards Shigure; he moved aside just enough to allow her to streak past, readying another dorje for throwing.  
  
As she skidded into the shrine, something occurred to her: running in wet shoes across a smooth wooden floor tends to bring about only one result..... CRASH! She landed in an ungainly sprawl atop Ushio's juzu-wrapped form. Groaning, Asako began to pick herself up, but Shigure wheeled around and hissed "STAY THERE!! You'll be safer there than out here, child!" as he threw something hard, "Thwack!" at the floor by her foot.  
  
The girl froze as bright, flickering lines of blue fire snapped into place running from dorje to dorje, surrounding herself and the Spearbearer in a square of neon light; flailing back from this, she felt her hand smack down on something COLD-----  
  
----- and caught the briefest glimpse of what she was gripping as she turned to look, just before her limbs flooded with a chill numbness: the Spear.....  
  
Then everything, the shrine, Shigure, the battle--- everything was lost in a rush of blackness as Asako fell down out of the world.  
  
***************************************  
  
Time passed..... or maybe it didn't. You have to be able to be *within* the realm of time for it to pass. And still she fell.  
  
***************************************  
  
Darkness and darkness and darkness, cold as a metal blade.  
  
How far can you fall before falling ends and flight begins? Asako knew she was still falling, but it felt almost as she was frozen in place, arms outstretched. She had lost the worst of her fear by now; it had seemed..... pointless, being afraid. You could only sustain terror for so long before it just sort of wore away under the relentless passing of time. Like trying to scream--- after a bit, you ran out of air; after a while, you realized that screaming served no purpose other than that of blocking out what was terrifying you in the first place.  
  
So she fell. Or flew--- she was going *someplace,* she was certain of that.  
  
To Ushio-kun, maybe? Far, far below she could see a spark, a glimmer of fire; it shone like a single star in an empty universe, drawing her eyes (if she *had* eyes--- hadn't she left her body behind or something like that?). Was he down there, or over there, or wherever the hell the spark was?  
  
She sure hoped so. Asako crossed her arms as she fell, staring fixedly out into the darkness, frowning.  
In fact, there were *several* things she found herself hoping for. For instance, a chance of stopping in her flight or fall or whatever this was before she went SPLAT would be nice----- Especially since the spark seemed to be getting closer really, *really* fast-----  
  
She was (she thought) falling head downwards; it was hard to tell. *Well.... maybe I can slow myself if I spread my arms out wider---- no, Asako, you idiot, there's nothing to slow yourself WITH. You're inside the Kemono No Yari, remember? No air, no gravity, no arms or body for that matter..... This is all metaphysical or symbolic or something stupid like that.*  
  
It didn't feel metaphysical; it felt like falling. And pretty soon now it was going to feel like LANDING-----  
  
----- and then, suddenly as a heart attack, she was there. No jolt, no pain, no 'splat'. Just..... there.  
  
On a street, cracked cobblestones underfoot in full sunlight, walls and buildings and people all about her. Asako blinked and blinked in shock, wavering in her tracks (she was standing upright?!? How had THAT happened?!?) as, with a determined cluck-cluck-squawk, a chicken ran directly in front of her. An ordinary chicken, just like any other; it was pursued a moment later by a small, laughing boy, definitely Asian in features but not wearing anything particularly identifiable, just some sort of patched-looking tunic---- WHERE THE HELL WAS SHE?!? What had happened to the *falling* bit?  
  
She was in a market.  
  
A sort of old, rural-looking market, with tile-roofed stone buildings and stalls made entirely of wood and cloth, thronged with people jabbering away in some dialect that sounded vaguely familiar but wasn't understandable. Asako watched bemusedly as people straight out of a World History documentary went past, talking and carrying bales and bundles, driving pigs and goats, dressed in robes and skirts and--- and why weren't they paying attention to her? No one was even looking.....  
  
So many people, passing her by as if she were a ghost. Old men, young women in shawls, kids---- there was even a guy in some sort of--- armor?--- riding a horse over there by what looked like a city wall..... Asako wheeled around, staring; *well, whatever I expected to find inside the Spear, THIS wasn't it,* she thought with a certain apprehension.  
  
What next?  
  
It was kind of ludicrous, really; Asako could feel panic beginning to spiral upwards, riding the rising uncertainty and worry in her heart. She hadn't planned on falling into the Spear or whatever she had done----- it had just happened. And now here she was, stuck inside some sort of ancient city and no-one seemed to be able to see her, and outside of this that hideous monster was probably EATING her body--------  
  
"Asako......? Hey---- Asako?"  
  
----- and she spun around, snapping "WHAT?!?" before her eyes could really register what they were seeing:  
  
Ushio-kun. Leaning against the city wall, arms crossed. Looking *ridiculously* glad to see her, with that huge grin on his face that she had always secretly loved.  
  
Ushio-kun. Asako stumbled forward, barely aware that *she* was passing through the crowd like a ghost----- and then he was holding her tightly for a long moment, his hands on her back, her head against his shoulder.....  
  
He felt so good. His hands were strong, and his touch was real, not something imagined. To hell with the being-out-of-your-body-and-inside-the-Spear idea, the feeling of his body in her arms was *real.*  
  
In her arms..... Oh. They both broke apart at the same moment; Asako could feel herself flushing somewhat with embarrassment, but somehow she just didn't care quite as much as she usually would. Ushio looked a little red about the ears too----- Well, never mind that; she'd deal with it later. Right now----  
  
Right now she wanted to do one thing in particular. Asako planted a hand on each of her friend's shoulders and *shook* him, hard. He staggered slightly back as she let go, and she faced him down fiercely. "Ushio-kun, what the *hell* do you mean by worrying everybody like this?!? We've been fighting for our lives while you stayed safe and sound here inside the Spear? What kind of hero does that, huh? Idiot! All this time we've been...." She continued on in this theme for a few minutes, while Ushio just stood there taking it all in, his eyes large. Gradually Asako ran out of steam, slowing to a grouchy silence..... She stood there for a moment, trying to frown angrily; but the frown had defects built into it from the beginning, and they finally took their toll as her face quivered, drew itself up, and then broke into laughter.  
  
And Ushio just stood there, grinning from ear to ear. This *was* Asako, after all; if she hadn't been mad at him, it wouldn't have been Asako.  
  
Finally she brushed strands of hair back from her eyes, blinking. "Um, Ushio--- It's not that I'm *complaining*, but-----?" she said, gesturing at the buildings and people around her. "--- where are we? I mean..... I don't know what the inside of the Spear is *supposed* to look like, but, um....." Asako raised one eyebrow, trying to seem as calm as possible.  
Inside, though, some part of her was still busy just being happy that she had found him.  
  
Ushio shrugged a little, leaning back once again against the wall behind him. "So you know that we're in the Spear? Huh; that'll help some....." He sighed, his dark eyes shadowing as he looked out over the market. "This place..... Well, it isn't *really* a place, you know; it's sort of a memory, I guess." The Spearbearer ran one hand through his tousled black hair;   
Asako noticed for the first time that it was short, not long; he looked human, too, not..... And where was the Spear?  
  
Oh; all around them, of course..... What had he said? A 'memory'? She cocked her head to one side curiously. "Whose memory?"   
  
He drew a deep breath, his head turning to look out the open city gates towards the plain and the hills beyond. "The..... spirit inside the Spear's. The maker of the Spear's memory. *I* remember, too. It was just like this-----"  
  
For a moment a look of infinite sadness crossed Ushio's face, a sorrow so profound that he seemed almost unable to express it in words. Then he looked back at Asako and sighed. "I guess you should hear about him, and how the Spear got made; maybe it'll make some sense of all this." And he laughed ruefully; "Who knows? Maybe *you* can figure some way for us to get out of this mess--- I'm all out of ideas. And you can tell *me* what's been happening--- I've kinda been out of the loop. C'mon." He caught her hand in his, then paused, reddening a little. But Asako just linked her fingers in his, smiling a little inwardly. They began walking through the crowd, carefully skirting the busy, ghostly throng that passed them by unnoticing.  
  
***************************************  
  
"It was a long, long time ago, you know," said Ushio softly, stopping for a moment before they crossed through the city gates; he looked back towards the market, staring at a huge building in the distance; some sort of palace, perhaps..... Asako looked behind her at the building, then at her friend's face. "Ushio-kun..... you don't have to talk about it if you don't want to....." He turned back towards her at that, shaking his head. "Uh uh; it's just that--- it's, well, kind of hard. Even though it happened so long ago....." They began to walk again, passing through the gates and crossing carefully through the people that streamed forward on all sides.   
  
He sighed. "Where we are..... This is China, two thousand years or so ago." Asako blinked at that, but kept silent. "The big shot back there in that palace had this premonition or dream or whatever that this huge monster was going to come and destroy everything here. Well--- he was right about that..... Anyway, he *also* had this idea about some sort of magical weapon that could be made to defeat the monster. So he had all the local smiths put to work making the best weapons that they could." Ushio was quiet for a moment, his face distant. "There were these two smiths, a father and a son..... They were really good, and they got working on a weapon. Problem was, everything that they made----- well, all the weapons were great, but they were just ordinary. But they made the best one they could, and on the day that the bigshot had said was the deadline, they took it to the palace along with all the other smiths and *their* weapons."  
  
Now he looked down as they walked; his fingers were still linked with Asako's, and she could feel his heart beating in his palm. Why, she wondered, could she feel him so--- so *physically*, if they were supposed to be out of their bodies? She supposed it was just one of those things..... They had passed beyond the city's structures now, and were following a dirt track that veered away from the main road and slanted towards a nearby range of hills. Asako narrowed her eyes a bit; was that a house in the distance?  
  
Beside her Ushio spoke again, his voice low and hesitant. "The older smith--- he had a wife, this really great woman. She was so kind..... Asako, I wish you could've met her." He smiled a little to himself; "She was, well, kind of like what I always thought my mom would've been like..... You know, really caring and all that. And she had a daughter, named Jieme."  
  
He was silent again; when he spoke next, his voice was unexpectedly gentle. "Jieme----- Asako, you would recognize Jieme. She looked exactly like Mayuko." The girl turned to stare at him, not quite certain what he was saying. He shrugged; "I don't know *why* they looked so much alike, not all the details..... but she did. She was a *lot* like her..... Maybe a little older. And she was----- she went and----" Ushio's voice broke unexpectedly, and he stopped in his tracks, staring at the ground. Asako was startled to see a single tear beginning to trace its way down his cheek; she touched it gently with her fingertip. "Ushio?" Her hand lingered on his cheek.  
  
He wiped the droplet away and then looked straight at her, pain in his dark eyes. Funny; somehow she had never really paid attention to how much those eyes could hold..... They were like cups, brimming with emotion. Most of the guys that she knew would rather cut their throats than show what they were feeling (or at least, that's how it seemed at school); but right now-----   
  
He took a deep breath, looking back up at the hills beyond. "The monster that the weapons were supposed to fight----- It was hiding in the bigshot's court, among his, um, wives. It was pretty damned hideous--- big white thing, huge, sort of like what you'd get if you crossed a dragon with a fox, made it a hundred feet long, and gave it nine tails." Asako struggled with this concept for a moment, then passed it off. She'd think about it later. "Anyway, it..... destroyed the palace, the bigshot, the weapons, and just about all of the city. Only a few people survived..... The smith's wife died, and so did the smith. But his son--- Giryou--- survived, and Jieme did too."  
  
Ushio stopped walking again, closing his eyes; the girl could tell that he had come to the crux of the matter. "Ushio..... how do you know all this?" He opened his eyes and smiled a little weakly at her. "Hey, you wouldn't *believe* where I've been since I got the Spear..... I was here for all this; it's kind of complicated, but Tora and I..... We were sent back in time to see this. We had to be here, y'see." For a moment he bowed his head, a look of anguish crossing his face. "We were in the palace when it was destroyed; I--- Asako, it was horrible. Horrible."  
  
They stood there for a few minutes; far overhead a pair of swallows swooped and dived, their calls the only sound besides the wind.  
  
"The smith's son, Giryou..... he was a pretty damned good smith himself. But he was in shock after the attack, and I don't think he was really sane anymore. I mean, he saw both of his parents cut down before his eyes..... And Jieme was in pretty bad shape too. It was weird, though; she was so calm. It was like she *knew* what was going to happen, *knew* what she had to do." He drew another deep breath and they walked further along.  
  
"I had been staying with them--- hell, I practically landed on their doorstep when I arrived in the past, and I helped 'em out with a monster. I didn't have the Spear----- it hadn't been *made* yet----- but I did pretty good." He smiled sadly to himself. "I remember.... they used the Chinese form of 'Aotsuki'; they used to call me 'Tsuanyue'..... That night, after I made sure Jieme was as comfortable as possible, I went looking for Giryou. And I found him. He was in the forge, and..... he'd pretty much lost his mind. He was beating his fists against the anvil----- See, he *knew* a way to make the weapon that was needed to kill the monster, but there was this one little catch....."  
  
Unnoticed, his fingers tightened their grip on Asako's hand. He spoke carefully, almost tonelessly. "There had been this legendary smith from a long time before that had made a bell that would repel demons. But to make the bell, somebody had to die. That was part of it; you had to have somebody willing to *die* to make it strong enough. So the old smith's wife---- she----" He stopped for a moment. When he continued, his voice was oddly casual. "You ever seen an old-time forge, Asako? I don't mean something you'd use to shoe a horse with or anything like that; I mean one where you melted down a lot of ore, something that could make a *lot* of molten metal all at once..... They look like big brick boxes with open tops, about six feet tall or so; you have a really hot coal-fire burning inside it all around the edges, and the ore is put in the hollow inside. It melts sooner or later, and then you've got this huge pool of molten metal inside it, about six feet across and just as deep..... There's a place at the bottom of the forge where the smith gets the metal out. So----- so this legendary smith needed a sacrifice to make his demon-repelling bell, and his wife..... well, she threw herself into the forge."  
  
Asako stopped dead still, not letting go of Ushio's hand. He stopped too, looking back at her. For a long minute there was no sound again save for the birds and the wind. Then the Spearbearer tugged gently and they began walking again. His voice was very quiet, steadier now.  
  
"Giryou told me the story about the legendary smith and his bell and his wife's sacrifice, and I--- I couldn't say anything. Not that it would've made any damned difference, 'cause Jieme had followed me into the forge and had heard everything." He laughed a little, bitterly. "We were sitting there, not saying a word, and then we both turned around and there was Jieme, standing way up there on the edge of the forge."  
  
Silence. Asako turned to look at his profile as this sank in. "Ushio..... you don't mean she---- oh, no way, she *didn't*---"  
  
Ushio kept walking, trudging towards the hills. When he spoke again, his voice was very calm, very matter-of-fact. "Oh yes she did. She had heard the whole thing..... and you know? I think somehow she knew what to do anyway. We both tried to stop her, but she just said that the weapon had to be made--- that the world would be better for it. And then she just smiled at us..... and she-----"  
  
He stopped. So did Asako. Neither said anything for a very long moment, but Ushio's grip was painfully tight. And Asako would not have let go for the world.  
  
"Asako..... I tried to save her. I really tried! But I wasn't fast enough--- I just couldn't----" he broke off, a thin trickle of sweat running down the side of his temple. "She..... went into the forge. And her brother, well, he *really* lost it then. That was the last straw. And there was nothing I could do but sit there and watch..... After a while he just started working, making the weapon. He was--- I don't know, he was *way* past being in shock by now; it was like there was nothing else in the world LEFT for him but to make this weapon."  
  
"He said--- he said that, since there were demons everywhere..... He would be a demon to them."  
  
"So he made the spear-head, and it was perfect. But he kept hammering, and then--- I don't really know how to explain this bit, but he started sort of *merging* with the spearhead, and he..... "  
  
"He became the Kemono No Yari."  
  
They had reached the treeline at the base of the hills now, and they stopped. Ushio was gazing up at the thatched house on the hillside above with a look of terrible sadness in his eyes. He took a ragged breath. "This was their house..... that's the forge up there. I'd guess that's where Giryou is right now--- it's where he *always* is; and I suppose that's where *we'll* have to go to get back to the real world..... Asako, he's not really very sane, you know. All the power in the Spear comes from what he and Jieme did, how the Spear was made, and what people like me give up to the Spear when we use it--- parts of our souls, I guess; it *all* boils down to sacrifices. But..... I've seen him a time or two since he became the Spear, and he's hard to communicate with; there's no telling what's going to be happening inside the forge when we go in there. I mean, he might be----- Asako? Hey, *Asako?*"  
  
She kept her face turned away, saying nothing. Ushio tentatively laid his hand gently on her shoulder; she turned back towards him a little, looking down towards the ground.  
  
"Ushio..... I didn't know. About the Spear, I mean. If I had known it was going to hurt you so much to talk about it----" She stopped at that; this was Ushio-kun, and it was hard to break the rules. She understood those rules--- they were the unwritten ones, the important ones like: Thou Shalt Not Show Any Real Affection For Ushio; or Thou Shalt Fight With Him Before Getting Too Close. Breaking them.... made her heart hurt.   
  
But maybe it was time to break some rules. Those rules had been made (in a totally nonverbal way, of course) when they were younger; now..... maybe it was time for a change.  
  
He was looking at her again, really *looking* at her, and those dark eyes were so gentle..... so sad. He was always laughing, always making fun of things: of her, of Tora, of the whole world. How long had that sadness been there under the laughter? And now Ushio was just smiling kind of crookedly, like always. Just shaking his head and taking her hand back in his again. Funny; he didn't blush this time.  
  
The boy--- the young man--- sighed, glancing back up at the small thatched house up the hill. "Never mind; it's OK--- you needed to know what you'd be going into. Howzabout you tell *me* a little about what's been going on before we head up there? Remember, the last *I* knew, me and Tora were fighting that thing in the hills. He could smell your scent, so I knew you were there...... Hell; I don't even know where my BODY is!!" He cocked an eyebrow at her, that same rather goofy smile back on his face again.  
  
That was okay; she understood. It looked like they both knew that it was time to change the rules--- and they wouldn't say any of the *new* ones out loud, either. Making up those new ones would be..... interesting.....   
  
Asako settled down on a rock, sighed, and began: "Ushio-kun, you're an idiot. Well, first off, that 'thing' is called the Seki Donshoku Mono, and it nearly ate your soul....."  
  
***************************************  
  
"Shit."  
  
Well, that pretty much summed things up. Ushio sat beside Asako, chin propped on hand; his brow was furrowed as he thought hard about the situation in what they both had started calling the Real World. He glanced over at her, his dark eyes questioning. She had slid down to sit cross-legged on the grassy turf with her back against the stone, and she stared out over the plain back towards the city gates off in the distance.  
  
She hadn't *quite* told him everything; something (common sense, probably) had made her 'edit' the transaction between Tora and herself----- Asako was quite certain that a full disclosure of *that* little matter would lead to one very unhappy bakemono. Why, she asked herself, did she care what happened to Tora? Well..... She couldn't really say; she just did. It was funny how your feelings could change so quickly, like a leaf flipping over in the wind.  
  
That thought made her glance up at Ushio, and she had a smile. Yeah, it was a funny thing.  
  
Suddenly she felt a 'clunk' on her forehead; her friend had reached out and thumped her gently with his knuckles. "Hey----- Earth to Asako-kun. You gonna sit and stare at me all day or what? We need to get moving." He stood, turning to look up at the thatched building above them.  
  
"Yeah, I guess we do. Can't keep monsters waiting, can we?" She stood and stretched, brushing bits of grass from the seat of her jeans. A thought occurred to her then; "Um, Ushio? If we're not really in our bodies, why do I feel so, so *real*? I mean, I don't feel ANY different! I thought I'd feel, I don't know..... sort of spiritual or something? Having to dust off my butt isn't very spiritual....."  
  
He grimaced, then shrugged; "No idea. I've been here before---- inside the Spear, I mean----- and it was different. It was all black, for one thing, and I wasn't wearing anything..... I guess I was just a soul or something like that." He paused for a second, looking over one shoulder to take in the wide view of grassy plain, city and sky. He turned, beginning to climb up the short path to the buildings above; Asako moved up to climb behind him. "Maybe it has something to do with the Donshoku" she suggested, thinking idly that Ushio really looked pretty good from behind. She caught herself up with a jerk after a moment, sputtering mentally at her own thoughts. This was *no* time for that sort of thing! But he *did*......  
  
Oblivious to her mental confusion, he continued climbing. "Maybe. I remember Tora saying something about it hunting people through their dreams. You said that my Dad mentioned something about mirrors?"  
  
Asako slid a little on the rocky path, then recovered. "Yeah; he said that we have to trap it in a reflective surface of some kind, and that it would keep coming after us until we did." She shivered, but continued climbing. Ushio glanced back at her, his expressive eyes catching the look of apprehension on her own face. "One thing at a time, Asako-kun; one thing at a time. Let's get out of here first." He hauled himself up the last steep incline and stopped, staring at the yard before him. "..... It's just like it was when I was here before....."  
  
The girl climbed up to stand beside him. The yard was small, dusty; a stone well stood to one side with the bucket lying on the ground beside it. Beyond the rise of ground the small house had a strangely occupied air, as if its owners had just stepped out and would be right back any moment; chickens clucked and scratched in the dirt before the steps.  
  
And beyond *that* stood the forge. It was a small building, not very impressive. But..... Asako hung back for a moment; it looked so *lonely*, so peculiarly dark there..... The door was half-ajar and she could see not light beyond it, could hear no sound. But Ushio-kun was moving towards it, a determined set to his jaw. She stepped up to walk beside him, taking his hand in her own as unobtrusively as possible.  
  
His palms were sweating. He could feel it too, that lonliness. He pushed the door further open.....  
  
Blackness, like a pool of ink, like the inside of a stone; they were supposed to walk into *that?* Asako swallowed and looked at Ushio. For a moment it seemed as if she could see his Spearbearer-face overlaying his human one like a shadow, the eyes hard and feral and bright. Then that passed, and the two of them stepped forward into the darkness.  
  
***************************************  
  
..... cold, it was COLD, as cold as the blade of the Spear had been; Asako gripped Ushio's hand tightly as a spreading numbness seemed to drain most of the feeling from her skin. And it was so dark; nothing to see, nothing to walk on, no path to follow..... nothing but that faint spark off in the distance, wavering red-gold-white flicker of a distant fire. And the ringing noise; a sharp, high sound, the sounds of metal on metal.  
  
It was a long walk; she could feel nothing except for the touch of Ushio's hand on hers, not even when she reached up to push her hair back from her face; nothing. She had wondered why she hadn't felt more 'spiritual' if she was out of her body, hadn't she? Well, now she had an inkling of what that felt like. It felt like nothing.  
  
And the sounds went on, clanging rhythmically through the darkness, growing louder.  
  
They were almost there (wherever 'there' was); she could begin to make out details. The light *was* that of fire, but it seemed to be coming in.... jets? Like you'd get from a blowtorch? And there was a figure, hunched over, working on..... something. Something long and red-silver, burning in the darkness.....  
  
The Kemono No Yari. The Spear's blade lay against the man's knees as he brought his hammer down, "CLANG!!", a long gush of brilliant flame streaming from his mouth to heat the blade again.....  
  
His face----- that was the most terrible part. He was weeping; tears of blood streaked his cheeks, ran down his face and dripped off into the darkness which (Asako was suddenly certain) was surely made up mostly of his tears. And his eyes were terrible; burning, burning, hotter than the fires that he used to continually heat the blade of his forging, dreadful eyes filled with a grief that surpassed *anything* anyone should ever, ever have to bear. Asako watched, beyond horror, as he brought the hammer down again: "CLANG!!"  
  
For a second she faltered, turning to hide her face against Ushio's shoulder. But she was Asako; so, ashamed of her moment of weakness, she straightend, looking back at the smith. He paid them no attention, just continued on with his terrible forging, gripping the cherry-red metal in his bare hands. "CLANG!!" It was like a heartbeat.  
  
Tentatively they approached him. Ushio, his face barely outlined in the changing red light said softly "Giryou-sama?" Then, when no response was forthcoming, "Smith? It's me..... Tsuanyue. Do you remember me?"  
  
"CLANG!!" Silence. Then..... "I remember you, boy. I know you." The smith's voice was unexpectedly soft, barely there; yet it raised echoes and shivers of sound in the lonely darkness around them, resonating harshly. "You are one of mine."  
  
Ushio's eyes were fixed on the terrible face before him. "Yeah..... I am." He sighed, a sad sound. "Giryou-sama? Can you send us back? We need to return to our bodies----- there's a fight going on-----"  
  
"CLANG!!" The smith turned the Spear's blade over; another gust of flame poured over it, heating the edges to a paler red. "Why? If you go, you'll just die. Everything dies....." The pain in the soft, weary voice was hot enough to melt stone.  
  
The Spearbearer's voice hardened. "Why?!? Because that's what I *DO*, Giryou! Did you make the Kemono No Yari so people like me could just give up? You made me what I *am*, Smith!!"  
  
At that the burning eyes turned to look at him for the first time; Asako caught her breath at the lack of sanity there. No, not a lack; it was more like what you might find if you passed through madness and came out the other side..... something altogether above and beyond insanity. She gripped Ushio's hand tightly, clearing her throat. "Giryou-sama..... Please."  
  
For a moment Giryou's gaze fixed on her; a halo of fire seemed to flare around the smith, illuminating the darkness around them. "Girl..... You know nothing of this. You should not even be here! I do not know you..... Why are you here?"  
  
Asako swallowed hard. "I'm with your Spearbearer; I'm one of the people he protects. He told me about you, and about your sister. Please, send us back! People will die--- some have already died! If we can get back to our bodies we can help-----"  
  
But his attention was wavering; the moment of clarity was fading with the aura of fire. The shadows crept back to engulf the smith, only receeding a little as he brought his hammer down again in a flash of fire: "CLANG!!" Asako felt Ushio's hand grip hers cruelly tight.  
  
Speaking quietly, desperately, the boy said at last: "Giryou-sama..... Would your *sister* want us to give up?"  
  
Silence, then a dreadful, echoing whisper. "..... *What* did you say, boy?"  
  
Ushio stepped forward, pulling Asako behind him; his eyes were fixed intently on the Smith's face. "You heard me. We were both there when she gave everything she had so that *this*----" and he pointed at the weapon "----- could be made." The boy knelt beside Giryou, not quite touching. "Are you going to waste what she did?!?"  
  
They crouched there, the both of them, for an endless moment; Asako stood over them in silent witness. If she was breathing she couldn't feel it; if her heart was beating, she couldn't hear it. There was only the crackle of flames and the scent of burning.  
  
Finally the Smith turned his gaze back to the Spear's blade where it lay cooling. "Go, then. Go away and let me be. Fight your battles." As Ushio slowly stood he brought the hammer down again: "CLANG!!" Far away in the distance a single point of white light flickered, glimmered, then held steady. "That is your door. Go back to the world and be my tool again, boy..... just like all the others that came before you." For a moment Giryou's pain burned through as raw as before in his words, but silence swallowed up the echoes.  
  
Asako pulled Ushio to his feet. They backed away, bowing; the Smith paid them no attention; his eyes were all for the weapon that he had been forging over and over for two thousand years, created endlessly from his own obsessed will and the souls of all those who had become his. But as Asako and Ushio began to move away, he spoke: "Tsuanyue." The name was nearly inaudible, a mere brush of echoes. The boy paused. "..... yes, Giryou-sama?"  
  
"..... Be careful. What you face----- if it cannot harm your body, it seeks out your dreams. It tried to catch me up in mine, giving my old world back to me as a lure..... But I have no dreams anymore, only memories; and so it could not take me. But beware....." The Smith brought his hammer down hard, turning the blade again. "CLANG!!"  
  
Ushio was silent, ducking his head a little; Asako could just make out his profile against the redness of the forging. "Yeah, I will, Giryou-sama. And..... thank you."  
  
The Smith laughed briefly, the ragged, soft sound worse than weeping. "'Thank you'? You are a fool, Tsuanyue, even more than most of my tools were." And then he turned back to his endless work, ignoring them.  
  
The two bowed again, then turned to walk through the blackness towards the spark of light. Behind them they could hear the hammer come down once more.  
  
They walked in silence; as they approached the light, it widened and took shape: tall, pointed, triangular..... Asako shivered a little, recognizing the shape. Of course it was the Spear's blade; how not? She turned to Ushio, still holding his hand tightly. In the silvery glow she could see him clearly now and his face was that of the Spearbearer, not the human boy she had grown up with; his long, long hair trailed down around him and his eyes reflected back the illumination, blindingly blue-purple.  
  
The shining traced the lines of his jaw, the angle of his cheekbones; he looked..... feral, like something out of an old tale, not like the boy she had always known. He looked..... wild. In a moment they would step through, back to the real world and the battle there; but first she had something she wanted to do. She might not have a chance later.....  
  
Asako could feel the old Rules trying to hold her back, keeping her frozen in embarassment; to hell with them. She reached up and touched his cheek with one hand. "Ushio-kun..... Ushio?" He turned his lambent eyes towards her then, and she kissed him.  
  
It was very quick, a half-frightened brush of her lips on his; but she could feel him the same way she could feel his fingers tightening where they gripped hers: warmth in the cold darkness. He stared at her; they were nearly the same height. "...... Asako? Why did you do that...?" The words were faint, barely there.  
  
She ducked her head, staring at the blackness beneath her feet. "I----- wanted to; I just did. I don't know what we're going to go back to, so..... I guess I'm an idiot. But I wanted to do this before we went back, just in case-----." Asako sighed, feeling a little sad. She supposed that she shouldn't have done that, but..... Then she felt his fingers under her chin, raising her head so that she looked her friend straight in the eye. He was smiling, and there was something new in that smile..... something that had *nothing* to do with the old Rules. It made her heart catch somewhere in her, made her breath stop in her throat.   
  
Very hesitantly Ushio leaned forward; Asako's eyes widened as he kissed her gently. His lips were warm against hers, and she could see that he had closed his own eyes; his touch made something shiver through her, bringing back a momentary wash of feeling throughout whatever was passing for her body. Ushio drew back; his slit pupils were dialated in the silvery brilliance, his expression softened, wondering.   
  
He took a rather ragged breath then, running one hand through his long hair; he looked a little shaken. Had her kiss made *him* shiver? Maybe..... "Um, Asako----- we need to go. I mean, I'd like to----- uh, I mean I want to see where this is going and all, but----" She stopped him, one finger against his lips. "It's okay, Ushio. I know what you mean. Maybe we'll get the chance to..... later. Let's just *survive* this first."  
  
"But..... I'm glad I did that."  
  
He darted a glance at her; he was smiling still, that new smile, strange and wonderful. "Yeah. Me too....." Ushio stepped towards the silver luminescense, still holding Asako's hand. She walked with him, step for step, and they passed from the darkness into the light......  
  
****************************************************************************************************************************************  
  
  
Aaaaand..... yet another cliffhanger. C'mon y'all, review! (I write faster if you review..... =^_^=)...... Ysabet, grinning a lot  
  
  
  
  



	5. Shadowplay

DISCLAIMER: You all know the drill. It's not mine, they aren't either, but the monster is. Sure hope it stays in the story and doesn't come visiting--- I don't have enough room in my house! (But Tora can drop by anytime.) On with the show! (And, by the way--- thanks to everyone who waited for this.... sorry to try your patience, but I figured that I had best wait out the trouble ff.net was having before I posted.)  
  
  
Chapter 5: Shadowplay  
By Ysabet  
  
  
***Falling again.....***  
  
Stepping into the brightness was like walking off of a cliff; as Asako felt herself tumble over the edge, it occurred to her briefly that she seemed to be falling a *lot* lately. Perhaps she should worry?  
  
But at least this time she wasn't alone; as gravity took her and she tilted forward into flight she could feel Ushio's hand in hers (she wished she could see him--- she couldn't see anything but cold emptiness). He was with her, and they were going back.   
  
***Falling softly through silver-white blankness, like stones drifting downwards through freezing water..... falling.....***  
  
She felt his fingers clutch hers convulsively. For an endless moment they soared, weightless as kites; then-----   
  
WHAMMMM!!!  
  
*OWW!!!" Asako cried out, grabbing at her temples; somebody had just hit her in the *head*-----  
  
No; she was..... lying on a floor, on something lumpy..... and her hand hurt; it was cold. Ohhhh..... Carefully Asako lifted her head. She was lying on top of Ushio, who was staring up directly into her face, slit-pupiled eyes wincing in pain. He tugged one arm loose from the strands of juzu with a multiple-snap of breaking strings; beads shot in all directions. Struggling against his bindings, the Spearbearer dumped Asako unceremoniously to the floor as something struck hard against the wall a few feet away with a resounding "Thud!!"  
  
As she scrambled to her feet, she wondered muzzily how long they had been gone---- surely it had been for *some* time, but the battle seemed to still be going on----- Asako climbed clumsily to her feet, still nursing a hand burning with cold; she staggered upright, moving towards the door. As she stepped forward, a strange warmth about her ankles distracted her for a moment; but without looking she continued on until she could peek around the edge of the door.  
  
Complete chaos: Red mist, hungry mouths and burning eyes--- Tora, roaring like a freight train and burning with his own brand of electrical disaster--- and Shigure, picking himself up from the ground to her left (*oh,* a small, calm voice said inside her brain; *he made the thud.*) The noise was terrible; Tora's continual rumbling growl made an oddly deep counterpoint to the high, shrilling whine and chatter of teeth from the Donshoku's many mouths. As she watched, frozen, it darted several tentacles of semi-solid fog towards Shigure, who cried out something incomprehensible and arcane in response, holding up several ofuda before his face. They *blazed,* their characters glowing briefly at the monster's advance; it hissed angrily and retreated, swinging around towards Tora again.  
  
All this was illuminated by the lights shining above and behind Asako, the normal electrical lighting of the Aotsuki Shrine and Ushio's home; the battle looked faintly unreal in the bright flood of illumination, lights shining through windblown raindrops almost like something from a dream.....   
  
But then--- "CRACK-A-BOOOOOOOMMMM!!!!!"  
  
Now it looked more like something from a nightmare; everything had gone dark, shot through with a rain of sparks and the eerie glow and whiplash-sound of Tora's lightning. Apparently the powerlines overhead could only stand so much..... In the darkness the bakemono laughed, his silver eyes reflecting the sparks as he prepared to launch another strike-----  
  
Asako huddled at the edge of the doorway, the dim glow of the shrine's candles at her back the only illumination left. Behind her she heard a strangled cry and a scorching crackle; God, now what?   
  
Ushio was---- WHAT was he doing? He was struggling against.... something hot and bright that wreathed him with blue fire, springing up from a neon-brilliant line at floor level--- oh, those things Shigure-san had set up! As she reached a hand towards him he snarled "NO!! Asako, don't--- I don't know what this is--- don't be stupid!" His slit-pupiled eyes flashed cobalt with pain and anger in the blue radiance; her own snapped back at him as, stung, she began to retort and to reach forward anyway-----  
  
"CRASH!!!" She wheeled about as the wall behind her shattered with a sound like ripping silk; the candles went out in a heartbeat. Tora's huge form skidded on the wooden floor as shards of wall rained around the room in the blue-lit darkness; Asako cried out, fending off debris as she sank to a crouch at Ushio's feet. The Spearbearer strained against the crackling web of energy, trying desperately to cross; thin lines of force spiderwebbed his body as he fought against the barrier, sparks burning against his skin---  
  
Tora reared up on his hindlegs like a bear, screaming his own defiance against the thick crimson haze that was beginning to flow past the wrecked wall into the shrine. The Donshoku *glowed* in the darkness, a scarlet horror of red-lit eyes and mouths. It wreathed about the bakemono, enveloping him; Tora threw back his head and howled, a brilliance of lightning writhing in electrical trails around his body to shatter the redness. Shrieking in a dozen voices, the creature drew back, swirled in the air--- and rushed past him straight towards Asako.  
  
..... who had no time at all to do anything but throw her arms across her face and wait for death.  
  
She was dimly aware of a scream above and behind her, and of something thudding *HARD* into the floor in front of her--- In terror, Asako closed her eyes-----  
  
**********************************************  
  
----- and opened them, blinking; the alarm was going off..... she was going to be late for school!  
  
No, that wasn't right; this was Saturday, and she had to get up. She had things to do today..... The early sunlight streamed in through her window, sleeking her skin with warmth; Asako stretched, smiling to herself as anticipation washed over her. Today was going to be good, the best of days--- she wasn't sure why or how, but she knew it was.....  
  
Something wonderful was waiting for her downstairs.  
  
As she swung her legs over the side of her bed, the frown faded a little; she had been--- dreaming? Having a nightmare? Something about red fog, and eyes, and bloody tears..... The girl shook her head slightly, as if to shake the tatters and rags of her dream from her mind. Forget that; today would be good..... wonderful. She had to go downstairs.  
  
And then she was dressed and moving for the door; funny, she didn't remember dressing, but there were the familiar jeans and t-shirt..... Never mind. Asako grimaced at her own forgetfulness and slipped out into the hallway, closing her bedroom door behind her. Doors..... you should always close doors, so nothing could get in, or out..... She frowned again; where had *that* thought come from?  
  
Now she was at the stairs, starting down. The girl could hear her parent's voices drifting up from below, mixed with the sounds of clattering plates and sizzling food; the odors made her mouth water. And today..... today she didn't have to work! Instead she was going.....  
  
Asako stopped on the stairs, considering; *where* was she going? Who would help her parents run the restaurant if she was off having a good time? And she WAS going to have a good time; something.....  
  
Something wonderful was waiting for her downstairs.  
  
Right. A few more steps, then she slowed, halted; she could see him now, sitting at the counter eating (he was always eating--- bottomless pit...). His short dark hair was brushed back, a little neater than usual (but was it short? For some reason, she had a momentary flash of long, long strands) and she could see the muscles of his shoulders moving under his tanktop as he shifted forward to take another bite; his skin was smooth and tanned..... He hadn't heard her footsteps yet, but in a moment he would turn around-----  
  
Something was waiting for her downstairs.  
  
Asako stopped.  
  
Something was wrong. For a moment a fragment of her dream flashed across her vision: a terrible face, weeping terrible red tears..... red..... terrible eyes, teeth----- blood in a bowl, sharp fragment of glass, pain-----  
  
But he was turning around now, looking over his shoulder with those dark eyes of his (dark? cobalt and violet, slit-pupiled like a cat's...), smiling at her with that crooked smile. Asako took a few more steps..... That was right, that was it--- they were going somewhere, she and Ushio----- and he wasn't calling her an idiot like usual, wasn't teasing her; and her parents were just standing there, smiling at them.....  
  
..... waiting for her downstairs.....  
  
She took another step, then another. He was standing now, still smiling. As she reached the landing he stepped forward, his hand outstretched for hers (but she had *held* his hand, hadn't she? He had blushed---).  
  
Asako moved forward slowly. Today was going to be a good day, a *perfect* day----- he was-----  
  
----- waiting for her-----   
  
*waiting* for her-----  
  
(flash of Ushio-kun's face, a single tear running down his cheek; and she had kissed him, had kissed him in the darkness of her dream, his long black hair falling around his angular face like a curtain..... so afraid for him..... lightning, silver eyes, claws and a red, red haze..... a fall through whiteness, his sharp-nailed hand clutched tight)  
  
----- as the hand reached out to take hers, she staggered back and shrieked "NOOOOOOO------"  
  
-----and the world shattered like a fragile glass mirror-----  
  
**********************************************  
  
Shigure had barely managed to get himself out of the way before Tora's backwards rush into the wall of the shrine; as he splashed and slid on the puddled ground, some small and analytical part of his mind noted clinically that the repairs on the building were going to be *expensive* this time.  
  
He wiped sodden gray hair from his eyes; what was he thinking about THAT for? Shock..... The battle wasn't going as planned (but then, what did?); they had to come up with a plan. At least the Donshoku couldn't leave, couldn't go hunting for other prey if it won.   
  
If they all fell.  
  
Where was it now------ A scream? Hand of Buddha, it was in there with---  
  
Ragged lightning arced from the damaged shrine; a roll of Tora's own dreadful thunder echoed off the far walls. Breathing hard, Shigure pulled several more dorje from the breast of his robe even as he splashed across the yard, fearing the worst.....  
  
**********************************************  
  
"THWACK!!! THWACK THUD!!!"  
  
The sounds of something impacting close by brought Asako back to herself, huddled there on the cold wooden floor; something striking so near by that she could feel splinters flying and snagging themselves on her jacket-sleeve.   
  
Shaking and disoriented with the aftermath of her dream (had it been a dream?), she opened her eyes to a strobing pattern of light and darkness; her vision could make no sense of what she saw. Brilliance fought it out with blackness, lightning crackling all around her as if she crouched in the center of a thunderstorm..... And the sounds! Deafening, shrill--- that was the Donshoku; it screamed horribly against the low, continual rumble of thunder and the crackle of lightning that pounded in her ears. Asako crossed her arms over her face in terror as if to ward off a blow..... Like that would help. Like *anything* would help if the Donshoku got to her---- but-----  
  
----- it HAD gotten to her----- where---  
  
Something was..... over her, around her in the darkness; something solid. She reached out tentatively and touched tattered fabric, rough and scorched-feeling; the scent of burnt cloth filled her nostrils. It moved; it was alive?  
  
Legs. Somebody was standing over her in the dark; somebody was snarling, shouting something furious and violent just over her head; deep growling drowned out the words.....  
  
It was all too much. She scuttled backwards on all fours like a crab, passing something on either side that registered as *hot*, very hot; the whatevers-they-were glowed faintly red in the darkness, and Asako smelled burned wood and metal. Never mind. Too much going on, too much to stand..... She bumped into something behind her; the flashes of lightning were just enough to show that it was the main altar of the shrine. Shivering, the girl crouched there, arms wrapped around her knees.  
  
Forcing herself to ignore the shouts, the roars, the lights, Asako clenched her fists and closed her eyes tightly. She needed a moment, just a moment of calm, an eye in the storm; she needed to understand what was going on. Calm, calm---- she wasn't a weak person, she wasn't the sort to hide in a corner, she needed to be strong for herself and for the others----- she was Asako, she was ASAKO and she could *handle* this-----  
  
A minute, perhaps two; that was all she could allow herself. The fight wouldn't stop just because some stupid girl needed a break. No more than 10 feet away she could hear Ushio yelling his defiance as he kept the Donshoku at bay; Shigure was shouting something out there in the yard, Tora was snarling and raising his own very personal sort of hell all over the place, and that THING was still screaming above and over everything. No more time to rest. She opened her eyes.  
  
ENOUGH. She had had ENOUGH. Time to join the fight. She needed a weapon.....  
  
Sparks rained across the room as a stray crackle of electricity grounded itself near Asako on the far wall; she could feel the hairs on the back of her neck quiver and move with static..... but who cared about that? She saw something else: some of the smashed wood at the front of the shrine had caught fire from sparks, lightning, whatever----- and the tendrils of red mist were *avoiding* the flames!  
  
Fire. It didn't like *fire!*  
  
What did she have that would burn? Even as she thought, Asako's hands were pulling her jacket from her body and whirling it towards the few remaining candles and lamps whose flames shivered behind her on the main altar..... The material caught, flared, began burning fitfully in her hands as she staggered to her feet.  
  
Ushio was still slashing at the thing with the Spear; it avoided his swipes and cuts adroitly, sharp-toothed mouths hissing in fury and hunger. With a shout, Asako swept her burning jacket up towards the weapon's point: "USHIO!! USE THIS!!!"  
  
The sharp silver blade swept through the flaming cloth without a check, snagging the garment from the air; the Spearbearer swung it in a wide arc across the reaching billows of scarlet--- and Asako heard an entirely satisfying sound:   
  
A scream, torn from a dozen inhuman throats. The monster retreated from the flames, withdrawing from the shrine as Ushio snarled in triumph and swept the flames forward again and again. The stink of burning nylon hung heavy in the air.  
  
But the jacket would only last for a few moments. Wiping sweat and tears from her face (when had she cried? when had she had *time?*), Asako caught the Spearbearer's arm; "WHAT?!?" he snapped against the chattering and hissing of the creature that was slowly retreating through the ruined door.  
  
"We need time--- we can't just keep throwing stuff at that thing----- " Asako craned her head to see what was happening beyond the doorway; she could just catch a glimpse of Tora's huge form behind the Donshoku's mists, his striped face lit by the continual blue and golden crackle of sparks that arced from clawed hand to clawed hand. Following her glance, Ushio grinned a sharp-toothed grin and threw back his head, shouting: "TORRRRRA!! We need a fire--- can you make one?!? We need FIRE!!!"  
  
The shout had its results. They both shielded their eyes as a jagged blast of blue-white power struck an almond tree near the entrance to the half-ruined shrine; it *exploded*, throwing burning splinters in all directions. The stump burned furiously, sizzling in the rain; even better, the remains of the tree crashed down in a tangle of blazing branches right in the middle of the yard. In a rush of screaming, open mouths and widened eyes the Donshoku retreated to mass against the far walls, recoiling as it approached the ofuda attached there. It hovered, withdrawing into a thickened cloud, seemingly indecisive. And THAT was what they needed, that moment.......  
  
Grabbing Asako's hand, Ushio pelted forward across the scarred wooden floor; she stumbled a little, but desperation spurred her on. Shigure was just outside, his robes soaked and blackened with soot; Tora crouched just beyond him, a growling silver-eyed outline in the darkness. Panting, Shigure flattened himself back against the wall as they passed, then followed; his sandled feet splashed and slid as they crossed the muddy yard.  
  
It was so DARK. Always before there had been lights around, from the house or the shrine. Asako had never really thought about how *isolated* the Aotsuki property was from the city----- it was only a matter of a few blocks, really, but it might as well have been miles. The streetlights were off in the distance, providing no help at all as the two humans and the Spearbearer ducked through the shadows, running for cover. Even the stars were no help; the dense cloud cover hid them all.  
  
But lights would make them easier to find, she supposed grimly. As she slid to a halt behind the Spearbearer, she silently thanked Whoever was listening for the darkness.  
  
It took Asako a few moments to realize just where they were heading--- Ushio seemed to have a goal in mind; they slid cautiously along one wall of a building, stopping to allow him to peer around a corner. The coast was clear; the Donshoku was nowhere in sight.....  
  
Nor was Tora. Where WAS he?   
  
Everything had grown so silent, eerily so; above the rabbit-pattering of her heart Asako could hear the dripping of the rain, the wind in the trees, could smell smoke and wet earth and the cold, fresh scent of rain. In the distance, very faintly, she thought she could hear something else--- a faint, deep mutter; a growling tangle of sounds that might be words...... Tora? The sound died away; silence again.  
  
Whatever..... they needed a safe place to think in, a safe moment to plan in. And apparently Ushio had decided on the old shrine as a haven. As the three fugitives crept around the corner and slipped into the darkness of the entrance, Asako reflected rather wryly on their destination; the old building was seeing rather more activity tonight than it had probably seen in the last century.  
  
Behind her, Shigure staggered slightly; his wounded leg was giving him trouble. Silently Asako offered her hand; the priest gratefully rested some of his weight on her shoulder as he stopped just inside of the entrance, kneeling carefully down on the cold stone floor. He slipped something from out of a pocket deep in his robes; watching him from the shadows, Ushio snorted briefly as he recognized the waterproof felt-tip marker from his own art supplies. In a few intricate, precise strokes, Shigure marked the stones with something that looked rather like the designs on the ofuda that he and Asako had prepared earlier (only a few hours ago, thought the girl; it felt like a lifetime--- it felt like *two.*) He drew a deep breath and stood, favoring his leg, then limped with his younger companions into the darkness of the old shrine.  
  
As they passed beyond all but the last traces of light, Asako tightened her grip on Ushio's hand; she couldn't see a thing. She could feel him turn towards her--- and she bit off an exclamation as his eyes shone back at her in the darkness, glimmering green-blue-purple, catlike. She swallowed; she was NOT afraid of him, she wasn't..... no matter how strange his eyes were in the dark. Apparently *he* could see where they were going; that would have to be enough. Shigure kept a good grip on her shoulder as they moved, and she could tell that his leg was hurting him badly. Maybe they could bandage it up when they stopped----  
  
----- But then all thoughts of first-aid were driven out of Asako's head as she ran into Ushio's back; he had frozen in his tracks, swinging the Spear around so that he held it at guard, point low and ready. There was something there in the darkness, something breathing..... something alive.  
  
"About *time* you got here, Brat," growled the bakemono softly where he crouched in the darkened corner, silver eyes glowing.  
  
"We need to end this. And we had best come up with a way to do so *quickly,* or WE will be the ones that end....."  
  
**********************************************  
  
Outside in the darkness and rain, scarlet death hissed its anger through a dozen mouths, and began to hunt again-----  
  
*************************************************************************************************************************************  
  
  
  
YSABET'S NOTES: Heh heh heh. Cliff-hanger time again! Chill out; I promise the next chapter will be here quickly! Now..... put that gun down and step back....... Ysabet  
  
  
  



	6. Invocations In the Dark

Here we go again..... Many, many thanks to Stardancer and Becky Tailweaver for helping me work this chapter out! On with the show........  
  
  
Chapter 6: Invocations In the Dark  
By Ysabet  
  
  
It's a funny thing, the way humans regard mirrors.  
  
They revere them, they adore them, they try to ignore them, they fear them. It's hard to walk past one without at least a momentary glance; and yet, to admire one's appearance in one is considered reprehensible. Indeed, one of the names for a table topped by a mirror is a "vanity."  
  
In some cultures, mirrors are covered when there's a death in the house; in others, at a birth. What is it they fear to see on the other side of the silvered glass? What are they afraid they'll recognize? Their inner demons? Their mortality?  
  
Or perhaps it's just their *selves* that they fear to really see?  
  
Mirrors of glass, mirrors of copper, bronze or silver. A mirror has always been a precious thing.  
  
But no matter how good the mirror is...... whatever it reflects, it *always* shows backwards.  
  
**********************************************  
  
Outside the walls of the oldest edifice within the Aotsuki shrine, the wind wailed as if taunting the sky it raced through; the heavens responded with a low growl of angry thunder. Rain rattled the roof-tiles like tiny hammers, pounding and prying with cold liquid fingers to get in, to touch what lay inside. The storm prowled, a wild animal that growled and clawed to reach past the walls to the life huddled there.  
  
And within the ancient shrine, a council of war was being held.  
  
"IDIOT!!" hissed the bakemono, his silver eyes flashing angrily. "We manage to live this long--- and you want to throw away our lives for WHAT?!!? A bunch of humans that mean nothing to us! So they live nearby; what of it? Hell, Brat, *you* don't even know most of them!!" Tora snorted; the dim light of the single candle that Shigure had provided from a handy pocket glinted off his claws as he flexed them, scraping the stones.  
  
Ushio rolled his eyes. "And maybe you've got a better idea, smartass? I'm not gonna run off and leave the Donshoku to eat my neighbors while we think of a way to deal with it--- it's in our territory, so we have to clean up our own mess!!" He crossed his arms and glared defiantly into Tora's irritated face no more than three feet from his own.  
  
Watching them both, Asako cleared her throat and raised one eyebrow inquiringly. The Spearbearer snorted; "See--- Bakemonotachi hold territories, and this one is *ours*----- If we screw up and let this thing run loose, then it'll look bad. 'Bad' as in 'You're-too-weak-to-hold-your-territory' bad. 'Bad' as in 'Maybe-I-ought-to-take-it-over' bad." He glowered at his partner; Tora growled something uncomplimentary and archaic under his breath and glowered right back.  
  
Shigure watched calmly as his son confronted the ancient monster; it was nothing new. They had these little battles a dozen or more times a day..... although, he thought wryly, said battles usually didn't concern the fate of their neighborhood and its population (more likely they were over the final destination of the last pork bun or something equally trivial). He massaged his maltreated leg; the bleeding had stopped, but it wasn't good for much. That last run (correction on his part: stagger) through the rain had just about finished it.  
  
He hated getting old. In his son's terminology, it 'sucked.'  
  
He glanced over at the girl. Asako had gone silent after Ushio's reply; now she sat against the wall, knees clasped loosely before her. Her dark eyes were unseeing, turned inward in thought. At least *she* wasn't making much noise..... She was holding up much better than the priest had expected, really; anyone else would have been in hysterical fits long ago. Shigure rubbed at a bruise on one temple with his long fingers and smiled a little to himself; it seemed that Asako dealt best with her fear by getting angry with it. Well, whatever worked.....  
  
Asako was thinking hard about mirrors--- oh, and *fire,* she reminded herself; let's not forget fire. She leaned back against the cold stones, trying hard to forget what she had been doing the last time she had sat right there (she could see the bloodstained bowl and shard of glass a little ways away, pushed forgotten into a darkened corner). Best not to think about that too much.  
  
The girl sighed to herself and concentrated on what the others were saying. It was almost a relief to hear Ushio and Tora speaking to each other so, well, so *typically*......  
  
They were in each other's face again. Ushio was brandishing the Spear and Tora was snarling and trying not to flinch. Each one was muttering epithets so similar that (if one closed one's eyes, as Asako did just then) it almost sounded like a single voice attempting an impossible sort of duet:  
  
"Idiot!"   
"Shithead!"   
"You wouldn't know a good plan if it tore your throat out!"  
"YOU wouldn't know a good plan if it jumped up and bit you in the *ass*!!"   
"You'll get us all killed, Brat! At least with MY idea we MIGHT make it through---"   
"Stupid! THAT's what you think of as a PLAN?!?"  
"Rrrrrrrrrr.... it's a hell of a lot better than *your* idea-----"  
"Since when do you have *ideas*?!? Half the time you just tear things to pieces, and a lot of good THAT's done us---"  
  
"Asshole!!"   
"Yeah, right!! YOU just want to save your own hide---"   
"You got a better idea? Listen, Brat---"  
"Idiot!!"   
  
After a moment, the humor of the situation got to her; she tried to stifle a giggle, but enough of it leaked through to catch their attention. There was a sudden ear-splitting silence, and Asako opened her eyes.....  
  
..... to find herself fixed by three gazes: Silver monster orbs, irate and ferocious; Shigure's calm, amused gray glance; and a pair of catlike green-blue-purple eyes that gleamed with their own rather pissed-off light. Two voices, one deep and growling, one sharp and human, asked simultaneously: "What's so *funny?!?*"  
  
Asako merely rolled her own eyes. "If you two would stop trying to show how *brilliant* you both are, maybe we could figure something out TOGETHER. That thing's going to find us sooner or later, isn't it?" She turned to look at Shigure, who was carefully wrapping his damaged leg in strips torn from his robe. "Oji-san..... That thing you drew on the floor when we came in..... will it keep the monster out?"  
  
The priest sighed, running his fingers through his wet gray hair. "I'm afraid not" he said, the traces of amusement falling away from his face. "Glyphs like that were meant to be written on paper--- it has much to do with symbolism. A little while, no more..... The Seki Donshoku Mono will find us eventually, and I fear that my little markings won't hold it back for long after that." He glanced up at her; his face looked strained and hollow-eyed in the flickering candle-light. "I'm afraid I'm all out of ofuda. And out of ideas, as well."  
  
They were silent at that, even Tora.  
  
After a moment, the bakemono growled softly; the sound reverberated against the stone walls, lonely and menacing. It contrasted oddly with the dull patter and trickle of rain against the tiles. Thunder muttered above them in a dull clink of trembling ceramic. "Then we will have to think of something new, Priest" he said, sounding subdued and frustrated. His great claws rasped against the stone floor again, digging thin grooves that were nearly invisible in the faint illumination. His tail lashed; Asako sighed and shook her head. "We can't just leave, Tora-san. It's like Ushio said--- this is *our* mess, and we have to clean it up. Besides...." she cocked her head a little and smiled wanely at the monster. "Do you want that thing to *win?*"  
  
Tora stared narrowly at her for a moment, then growled again, louder; this time the tiles on the roof rattled *without* the benefit of the thunder.  
  
A movement beside her drew Asako's eyes. Ushio slid slowly down against the wall to sit cross-legged on the floor, the Spear resting in his hands. He was watching them both curiously, a speculative look in his shining eyes. After a moment he laughed softly. "Hey, Tora; what do you suppose some of those guys back at the Moon-Truce would think about us just *abandoning* our territory?" He snorted, then laughed again; his weary amusement and the bakemono's rumbling snarl blended for a moment into a strange harmony, sounding once again like a single voice, a single 'no' in the darkness.  
  
Sometimes those two were *WAY* too much alike, Asako thought to herself in exasperation as the verbal dual (or duet) continued. Black and white, light and dark--- they were like arrows facing opposite directions. Like reflections in a mirror. They both had the same enemies, felt *mostly* the same way about things (some of them, anyway)----- and fought like the proverbial cat and dog. Like brothers.  
  
And if she said anything like THAT to them, they'd *both* turn on her with identical expressions of disbelief-----  
  
Oh well. Better get back to the issue at hand and quit with the idle psychoanalysis; after all, they were just trying to avoid having their souls eaten. Nothing too important.....  
  
She cleared her throat. The mixture of name-calling and snappish growls had thinned out into a brooding silence; into that silence Asako asked aloud: "So--- what do we do now?"  
  
She continued, speaking more than half to herself. "That thing doesn't like mirrors; it doesn't like holy things; it doesn't like fire. What *else* doesn't it like?" The girl stretched once, wincing as her shoulders rasped against the rough surface of the wall. The flicker of the candle reflected brilliantly for a moment from the Kemono No Yari's blade as Ushio shifted in place, staring into the flame as if for inspiration.  
  
"Well--- it doesn't like sunlight, does it? Maybe we can wait it out....." he said, sounding a little dubious. Sighing, Shigure shook his head. "It will find us long before then, I think; there are still a few hours to go before dawn." The Spearbearer hunched his shoulders and ran the Spear's red tatters of silk through his fingers over and over again, thinking hard. He closed his eyes, and Asako found herself watching how the candle's flame threw the shadows of his long lashes across his cheeks.....   
  
Such a strange face, all planes and angles under the influence of the Spear; less human than before, but perhaps more 'Ushio' than it had been too. She found herself wanting to touch his face, to see what it was like to run her fingertips across those slanted cheekbones, that soft, long hair. Asako flushed; with a wrench she pulled her mind back to business.  
  
"Mirrors..... Tora, *why* does the Seki Donshoku Mono have that weakness? And is it just mirrors, or anything that reflects? There're so many superstitions about mirrors--- breaking them is unlucky, I know that; and there's lots of ghost stories about mirrors too."   
  
The bakemono shrugged and glanced over at Asako; he stretched his length out across the dusty floor, propping his chin on one huge hand and staring her in the face. "I've no idea, girl. Perhaps it has to do with what it eats--- I've heard that humans sometimes believe that their souls can be trapped in mirrors. The Donshoku eats souls--- mirrors trap souls--- so; mirrors can trap that which eats souls." He shrugged again and reached out to tap her forhead with a single talon, making both Asako and Ushio start; the Spearbearer narrowed his eyes and watched the monster carefully.  
  
"But *you,* girl, had best pay less attention to the 'whys' of things and find a way to run; have you forgotton that the damned thing is after YOU most of all?" He snarled a little, sharp teeth flashing candleflame-red in the dim light. "We are lesser prey to the Donshoku; it will take us when it can, but it will pursue you *first.*" His tail lashed, once, twice.  
  
Asako felt the blood drain away from her face; she had forgotton that for a while. Oh God-----  
  
Maybe she *should* have let Tora eat her; at least she would've died with her soul intact. The girl shivered as a cold, cold wind seemed to brush across her heart. As she raised her eyes to look back at Tora, she could see the same thought passing behind his harsh, impassive face. In an uncommonly low, quiet tone, the monster said softly: "Girl. It will not take you. I will make *certain* of that, if necessary."  
  
Silence.  
  
Perhaps that was the best she could hope for, after all.  
  
**********************************************  
  
Now Tora and Shigure were holding their own discussion on strategy; it was an odd thing, thought Asako, how those two got along. Sometimes it seemed as if they knew rules that no-one else did, rules that gave them a certain common ground. Occasional phrases regarding the Donshoku's habits, history and hunting patterns would catch her ear, but she paid little mind; it was hard to pay attention when your heart was pounding like a scared rabbit's.  
  
Asako got to her feet, walking a few yards away to sit on a dusty crate. From her vantage point she could just barely see the wan light that penetrated from beyond the broken doorway; the rain was still falling--- the drops reflected back the dim illumination in a glitter of faint, falling stars.  
  
*It* was out there. And it would come for her, and it would----- She had to get away from Ushio and from Oji-san and from Tora; she was a danger to them. Asako closed her eyes tightly against the distant flicker of the rain; this despair, this fear, it felt like *drowning*..... If she didn't get away the Donshoku would find her first and then it would eat the others and sooner or later somebody would come in looking for them, and then it would get loose and start on everybody *else* and-----  
  
She jerked hard as somebody sat down on the crate beside her; opening her eyes, she saw Ushio sitting a little slumped, his head lowered. He seemed to be studying the ground, but after a moment she caught a flash of those luminous eyes as he glanced at her from behind the curtain of his black hair. His gaze caught hers; there was concern and a certain curiousity in it, and Asako felt her own eyes fill with tears. She fought them back, hard; her rapid heartbeat slowed a little.  
  
After a moment or two, Ushio scuffed one tennishoed foot on the rough stone floor; he shifted the Spear a bit, the knob on the end making a faint scraping sound. "So..." he said softly. "You okay now? I could tell you were having some problems there for a minute." He looked past her at the distant raindrops, his face quiet.  
  
Asako sighed, a long miserable sigh. "Ushio..... I need to leave. If that thing is hunting *me* first, then I should be somewhere else, somewhere--- where you *aren't*-----" Her voice cracked. He was quiet, waiting for her next words; she could feel his stubborn, silent presence beside her like a lantern in the darkness. "I'm no hero, and I don't want to die. But if it chases me first, then maybe you and your dad and Tora can get out and find some help. Maybe I can find a way to keep it from getting me until the sun comes up....." Her voice trailed off.  
  
He was so quiet. Was this really *Ushio?* He was NEVER this quiet. Silence spread out like a cold, still pool, holding Asako in its grip; she felt frozen, waiting for her friend's response.  
  
When it came, it was in such a soft, fierce tone that the girl started a little in surprise. "You are *not* going to sacrifice yourself for us. We aren't going to *let* you go. *I'm* not going to let you go. Don't be stupid, Asako." He had turned his head and was staring at her directly in the dimness; she could see that he had drawn his lips back a little, his sharp teeth visible in a snarl.  
  
She stammered, recoiling; "I-- I didn't exactly mean that I'd just let it---"  
  
Ushio cut her off. "I *KNOW* what you meant. I know JUST what you meant. And if it was me, I'd probably be feeling the same way. I don't want other people to die either--- but I sure as Hell don't want you to end up being some sort of a monster's dinner either, goddammit! So let's just drop THAT idea right now, okay?" He growled at her then, actually growled, just a little. It sounded very odd coming from a human throat, but maybe he had been picking up some of Tora's bad habits. And speaking of Tora---  
  
The Spearbearer looked from Asako over to the bakemono; the monster was still deep in conversation with Shigure, who seemed to be describing something with much hand-gesturing. "Hey--- what's up with you and Tora, anyway? You two seem to be getting along better or something..... And what was that last bit? He sounded--- almost as if he was promising to *protect* you." Ushio crossed his arms, looking at her curiously. "That was kinda weird, for him....."  
  
She flushed. This was NOT something that she wanted to talk about (she still couldn't believe that she had done what she had.) Ushio would *most* definitely put six or seven new holes in Tora's hide if she explained about the blood and everything----- Shrugging and trying to look nonchalant, Asako glanced down at her feet. "I, ah, I did him a favor earlier, that's all. He was injured by the Donshoku and I helped fix him up." She crossed her arms, hugging herself unconciously. ''That's all there was to it. I guess he feels a little obligated or something."  
  
Ushio snorted. "'Obligated?' Tora?? Yeah, right..... Well, he's got his own ideas on that sort of thing; whatever. Anyway-----" He shifted his weight to one hip, settling back with his hands against the crate, watching her. "You look a little calmer now; are you gonna be alright?"  
  
His concern warmed her, melting some of the coldness that had wrapped around her heart when she had thought of facing the Donshoku out in the darkness, alone. Asako looked back up at him from her examination of the ground. Ushio was smiling that crooked smile at her; she could just see his expression in the dim light of rainfall and candleglow. "What's so funny, huh?"  
  
He closed his eyes for a moment, extinguishing the lambent flames of purple-blue. "Nothing, really. I was just thinking....." He opened his eyes again, blinking.  
  
He was blushing. The light was too faint to be able to actually *see* him blush, but somehow Asako was sure of it. In a second the stress of the moment altered to become an entirely different sort of tension.  
  
When he spoke again she had to strain to hear his voice, it was so soft. "I was, ummm, thinking about what I saw when the Donshoke grabbed me back in the shrine."  
  
Now she blinked. "It got you *too?* So--- what did you see?"  
  
Ushio ducked his head for a moment; the long strands of his hair curtained his face, hiding his expression. "I..... saw *you.* You were looking for me, and..... we were going to go somewhere, I can't remember where. I just remember that you looked so happy to *see* me, and I was gonna take your hand---" He raised his head, staring out unseeing into the shadows. "--- but somehow you just didn't look exactly like *you,* so I pulled back..... That's when I sort of came back to myself, and I was standing over you with the Spear inbetween both of us and that damned monster. I think the Kemono No Yari acted on its own that time." He shivered a moment, then looked sideways at her from between the strands of black hair.  
  
Now Asako was blushing; she felt her cheeks flame with a mixture of embarrassment and..... something else. Something that made her pulse beat in her throat, made her heart twist in the grip of a strange, unfamiliar gladness. It was the same feeling that had prompted her to kiss him in those moments when they had been both locked inside the Kemono No Yari-----  
  
Slowly, so slowly, she raised her hand and did what she had wanted to earlier; she ran one fingertip across his cheekbone, sweeping the black silk of his hair back to tuck it behind his ear. Now he couldn't hide his face from her anymore. Ushio's skin was warm beneath Asako's touch, smooth and real there in the cold darkness. His hand slipped up to cover hers for the briefest moment; then they were apart again, each staring at the dark, dusty floor as if looking for answers in the stones.  
  
Quietly she spoke. "I saw you too. You were waiting for me..... or I thought you were, anyway. I knew something was wrong, though; it wasn't really you." They were both silent for a second or two; it seemed better so.  
  
Then Asako felt the barest of touches against the line of her jaw; she turned her head. Ushio's fingertips rested lightly beneath the point of her chin. His face was shadowed, but that didn't matter as he leaned forward and kissed her very softly, very gently in the silence of the moment. That silence seemed to stretch, to expand and lengthen within its own version of time-----  
  
He drew back--- or she did; perhaps they both drew back. Oddly, neither Asako nor Ushio seemed to feel particularly awkward about what had just happened. Instead, the girl found herself contemplating whether or not they might try that again-----? She had some ideas...  
  
But the moment was shattered none-too-gently as a somewhat sardonic human voice said softly, "..... Ahem. If we might have your attention?"  
  
Guilty and flushing, the two swung around on their crate to see Shigure and Tora staring up at them from where they sat on the floor. The priest had a rather amused, wry look on his face; the bakemono leaned forward on one elbow and chuckled nastily. "Don't mind us; we can wait. We have a good view, after all....." He grinned a wicked grin. "However, If you two human children are finished with your foolishness, we also have a *plan*." The bakemono's smirk widened as Ushio muttered something very rude beneath his breath; Tora just laughed again, silver eyes slitted. "Young things in season....." murmured the monster, his tail twitching. Asako felt her fists clench and her cheeks grow hot; raising her chin, she glared at the bakemono and decided to ignore the whole thing.  
  
Shigure shot Tora a sidelong look and frowned. "A plan..... well, perhaps. A bait, a trap--- all of that, certainly. As to whether or not it will *work,* ahhhh...... I fear we no other options but to try it and see." He climbed carefully to his feet and limped over to the crate, tugging his robes a little closer around his shoulders against the dampness and chill.  
  
The priest cleared his throat. "Asako--- you asked some questions about mirrors earlier. We believe, Tora and I, that perhaps we have an idea of how to trap the Donshoku within a reflection once again." He hesitated a moment, then began once more, rubbing at his tired eyes with the back of a dusty hand.  
  
"Of course, there is a certain element of risk involved. And, regrettably, that risk falls mostly upon your shoulders. Tell me, child..... Do you think that you could manage to act as 'bait'.....?  
  
And Asako felt the coldness of terror welling up, welling up, stronger than before.....  
  
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Pant, pant, pant..... whew! Next chapter coming soon to a theater near you!--- Ysabet, catching her breath  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  



	7. Abracadabra

I Of The Beholder - 7 _Hi y'all. So... here's the next chapter. I had intended to finish this tale with this piece, but the bugger just won't lie down and die, you know? So next chapter will be the clincher, plus a short epilogue. Things are getting grim... Hope everybody enjoys this; it got delayed a bit by the sudden emergence of a Detective Conan story and a really, really strange Yami No Matsuei tale, but here it is! Please review, please please please--- reviews are almost better than chocolate....... Ysabet_

_P.S.: A humongous THANK YOU!!! to Becky Tailweaver, the InuYasha Goddess, for her kind lessons in the arcane magic known as HTML COMMANDS! My fics look all cool, nifty and professional now.... =^_^=_

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**Chapter 7: Abracadabra   
By Ysabet**  


  
  


_First there was the rain._

It pattered gently down as it had been doing for hours, little cold spatters hurrying to join their kin on the sodden earth below with no fuss, no hurry, only the certainty of gravity. Rivulets trickled and splashed from tile and treebranch, and all the dark landscape was awash with water. 

A soft mutter of muted thunder called out to the storm; it grumbled to itself like an irritated old man growling and waking from sleep, stomping its cold feet in the clouds. As if in answer, a louder rumble shook itself in a sudden black fit of irritation from the opposite side of the storm; lightning flashed, a sharp exclamation in the argument. 

It was raining harder now in fits and bursts----- the heavens cried out and beat at the earth with brutal, liquid fists----- the earth boomed back with an echo from the hills for every savage growl of thunder----- 

A _scream_ then; a crackling shout!!! from the sky as the clouds were surely split apart by FIRE, fire that lanced jagged and perfect from earth to heaven and heaven to earth in delicate blue-white lines. With nothing to hold it back, the rain completed its conquest of the earth as the sky opened up and released every heavy drop; it assaulted the sodden soil like hammers. The sheer _**noise**_ blocked out all the world. 

Men hunted monsters, monsters hunted men; but that was _*nothing*_ to the weather and never had been. 

_**The storm ruled over all.**_

************************************************************************* 

The Spearbearer ran like a hare through the rain, his feet splashing and sliding in mud and pebbles. Above him and around him the thunder and lightning raged in all their fury, matching the desperation in his heart. 

Crash-_splash_-splat-_slip_-STUMBLE-thud-_thud_-thud-_splash_..... 

Tora and his father had come up with something that amounted to a plan; he wasn't *happy* with it, not at all---- but nothing else really seemed feasible, so..... The first part required that someone find the Donshoku. That was simple enough; according to everything the bakemono and the priest knew (and it was rather _alarming_ how well they were working together, wasn't it?), the creature was somewhat simpleminded in its hunting patterns. It would most likely work outwards in a spiral from the last point of contact, endlessly moving until it reached a barrier it could not pass, then reversing the patter to spiral back in. This would continue until it found its prey--- the monster was simple, but hideously thorough. 

So Ushio had volunteered. 

After all, he was fast, he was relatively uninjured, and he was armed. He was also frightened half out of his wits..... But at the same time, he was _angry_. Angry that this bastard of a murdering thing had actually invaded his property, his _territory_..... How **DARE** it come to his home?!? Somehow without even realizing it (though he knew better), Ushio had gotten it into his thick head that the Aotsuki compound was inviolate, untouchable..... **safe**. The last time anything had come after him there had been the *first* time, those nasty little fish and insect monsters. Since then, nothing had broken through to his home. 

So, splashing through the mud and water of the yard (*slower now; no use in suddenly running into the monster, huh?*), Ushio found himself burning with a growing rage, a red heat that made a faint, rumbling snarl rise in his throat, made his chest tighten with the longing to _***destroy***_ the intruder. 

It frightened him, that rage--- but not as much as it might have under other circumstances. Somehow it seemed..... appropriate. This was his HOME. 

And then there was Asako.... 

He skidded to a halt behind his house, gripping the Spear tightly and peering around the corner; nothing yet. The Seki Donshoku Mono had to be oozing around here somewhere....... It had had enough time to spiral out and in at least once or twice. Somewhere it was drifting across his property, his territory, that goddamned son-of-a-bitch of a disgusting soul-eating THING----- 

----- that had almost gotten himself and Asako. That was what shook him the most; it had almost **gotten** them. Ushio wiped the sodden mass of black hair from his eyes and eased himself along the cold, wet building. That had been so close, too close..... 

_*****Asako had just been standing there rather impatiently in the bright sunlight, hands on her hips; she had been wearing that red sundress that he liked so much, and she had spun about at the sound of his footsteps. Her face had lit up in that gorgeous way it had (but it had never lit up like THAT for *him* before.....), and she had held both her hands out to him impulsively, silently----- _

Silently. That was the thing. Asako was *never* silent. Never. But there she stood, smiling at him, ready to take his hands..... silent...... There was something different in her eyes; a certain flatness, a lack of depth...... Asako? 

No; not Asako. Not his Asako..... And he had found himself roaring and striking out with the Spear, striking----- ***** 

'His' Asako. Now where, Ushio asked himself in some bemusement, had *that* thought come from? His hormones, maybe? His heart? 

_*Goddammit..... this stuff is too **complicated.***_ The Spearbearer shook rainwater from his eyes and shrugged a completely male shrug regarding the whole matter. 

Hmmmmm.... movement out there, along the wall; difficult to see through the driving curtain of rain, but there was *something* out there. The Spearbearer splashed as quietly as possible forward. *SHIT* he muttered to himself mentally; it was nearly impossible to move with any stealth through this morass of mud and broken twigs. As if taking umbrage at Ushio's disgust, the storm crashed down even harder; rain fell like cold whips against his shoulders and back, and he pushed his wet hair futilely from his face again. 

Huh; what _was_ that, out by the stone wall? It was so faint..... Something was there, something dim,although his nightsight could make out the distant white flutter of the ofuda attached to the stones without any difficulties. He was going to have to move closer. The Spear was steady in his grip, reassuring and solid; Ushio could feel his sharp nails trying to bite into the wooden haft, scraping a little. The tattered silk of the weapon's streamers fluttered a little in the driving rain, soaked and limp. 

_*'**His**' Asako.*_ He wondered what she'd think of his thinking of her that way----- 

Well...... things were changing between them. Maybe it was just that they were growing older; maybe it was just circumstances. Who knew? Who the hell *cared,* for that matter? He didn't..... All Ushio knew was that suddenly Asako wasn't just a friend, somebody he had known since babyhood. That was still there too, that friendship, but..... you didn't _notice_ friends the way he found himself suddenly _noticing_ Asako. 

No, not like that. 

She was still the Asako that he had always known, had fought and argued and played and shouted with since he could remember. But--- it was as if certain aspects of her personality (and--- let's face it--- her body) had become sort of written in heavy print. The way she turned her head to look at him was suddenly wonderful; the shape of her jawline, the graceful curve of her neck, those extraordinary eyes----- they were eloquent in ways that had never occurred to him before. And speaking of _curves....._

Even in the coldness of the rain, Ushio could feel himself blushing. And grinning. He crept a little closer to the wall. 

Curves; well, hell yeah. She had a few more of those now than he could _***ever***_ recall noticing before; how come he had been so blind? And those eyes, and that _smile_ of hers..... And, he had to admit, the way she wouldn't take shit from *anybody,* not even _*him*-----_ For some reason, that made him grin appreciatively even more. 

_(and she had ***kissed*** him..... and **HE** had.....)_

Uhhhmmmm..... he had better keep his mind on the business of hunting or he was going to get his ass kicked. Now WHERE had that movement been-----? Let's see, he had been over _there,_ and he had noticed it right about _there-----_ He moved forward again, crouching a little, weapon ready, eyes focused on the wall..... 

So focused, in fact, that he didn't notice the broken branch in front of him on the ground. The one that tripped him and splatted him butt-first into a cold, oozing puddle. SPLASH!! The noise was audible even above the pounding of the rain. 

The Spearbearer lay on his back, feeling panicky and foolish, hair streaming in his eyes and water thudding down on his face. Slowly he sat up; well, he consoled himself, at least he couldn't get any wetter--------- 

--------- and then the Spear _**sang**_ in his grasp and a sweep of _*something*_ sheeted across his vision, and he found himself looking straight up into a swirling, acrid cloud of RED and eyes and RED and mouths and RED........ 

_***Oh, **SHIT!!!*****_

************************************************************************* 

In the light of a single candle, Shigure sneezed. 

He was seated on the cold, damp stone floor of the ancient shrine; around him were heaps of old texts, boxes of miscellaneous temple fittings, scraps of lumber, containers of festival garlands and flags, musty unknown containers of musty unknown things----- In short, junk. Mostly. 

It was the _'mostly'_ part that concerned him just now. He hefted another disintegrating cardboard box onto his lap and opened it, wrinkling his nose at the dank smell that drifted up. Ah--- old textbooks, by the look of them. The old building had long been used as a storage house for the locals..... It was quite the common thing for someone whose relative had died to bring by a load of odds and ends for 'donation' to the shrine; regrettably, most of the 'donations' were unusable, unwanted and unwieldy. Hence the storage. And then there were the items that were honestly brought here for 'purification'..... Sometimes one might inherit something that gave odd apprehensions and feelings, something that possibly should be taken down to the local priest for a quick blessing. Sometimes it was better if said item never came back home, too; so it became a 'donation.' 

There was an upside to all of this, however; the shrine-building contained an unparalleled assortment of junk; and in that dungheap, diamonds occasionally made their appearance. 

The plan that had been worked out between himself, Tora, Ushio and Asako was in its essence very simple: Ushio would track and find the Seki Donshoku Mono; Shigure would find objects among the 'donations' which might repel the monster (apparently it didn't like 'charged' things, such as juzu and dorje); Asako and Tora would then lay out a narrow corridor of said charged objects, along which the Donshoku would be herded by the bakemono, the priest and the Spearbearer; Asako would act as bait, luring the monster along into the underground room below the shrine where it would receive a _*very*_ nasty surprise..... 

Shigure sighed and shifted a little; the damp coldness had settled in his injured leg, making it ache. Acid-burns and jagged bites were decidely NOT his favorite things in life. He slid the box of textbooks off to one side, wincing as the ancient cardboard crumbled a little more. Turning, he ran one dust-smeared hand along a second box; ahhhh, he could feel *something* in here...... 

The 'something' proved to be a small string of Tibetan prayer flags. Faded and tattered with the years, still they whispered their power forth in a tiny plea to the powers above for peace, for prosperity, for mercy. Shigure breathed in their spiritual perfume for a moment before placing the small bundle beside a few more such items: a small porcelain statue of Kuan Yin, a crudely-cast bronze Ganesh from India, a sadly-scratched (but obviously revered) Catholic rosary, a small stack of miscellaneous religious works in stained bindings, and (oddly enough) a hubcap from an American 1957 Mustang. He eyed the last item dubiously, then shook his head; there was no denying what lay within the rusting, dented scrap of metal. 

Holiness was where you found it. He reached behind another box and brought out one more item, one with *just* enough 'charge' to make it useful: a cracked bowl, somewhat stained, containing a single sharp shard of glass. The ceramic rang with a dull 'clink' as he placed it beside the Ganesh. 

"Oji-san? Do you have some more things for us? I don't think we have much time left----" 

He stretched for a moment, one hand at the small of his aching back. "A few more, child. How is the trap coming?" With Asako's help he climbed carefully to his feet, favoring his injured leg. 

The girl looked like a drowned rat; she could not have become wetter if she had lept into a river. Tendrils of dark, fine hair clung to the chilly skin of Asako's face; drops hung thickly on her eyelashes, scattering like diamonds in the candlelight as she blinked. "Well..... It looks pretty odd, but I guess it'll work. Tora says it makes him itch." She brushed a sodden strand from where it lay across her nose. "The holy things don't exactly _hurt_ him--- when I asked him why, he just snorted and told me not to mistake ***him*** for a demon--- but he thinks the Donshoku won't like them at all." 

She bent down and began gathering the oddly-assorted group of objects up; the girl examined the hubcap doubtfully, but added it after Shigure nodded. Trudging out into the rain, she turned back for a moment. "Is--- is the downstairs room ready yet?" she asked; the priest could hear the suppressed fear in her voice, but chose to ignore it for her sake. 

_*Let her be as brave as she can, poor child.....*_

"It's ready; you and Tora can go down and take a look whenever you wish." He smiled at her through the curtain of rain that began just past the roof's edge. 

Asako shrugged, shifting her grip on the items as the Kuan Yin statue tried to slip free. For a moment she juggled the various objects, and he saw her focus on the small bowl; her eyes widened, and he thought she might say something. But after a moment she bit her lip and continued: "Tora.... he says he won't go in there again. He calls it 'Down There'----- I don't think *anything* will get him to go back----- and I guess you can't really blame him, can you?" She smiled tiredly at the priest, then turned to splash back off across the yard towards the waiting dark bulk whose silver eyes glimmered faintly, watching them through the rain. 

Shigure watched her go, his heart aching. _*Poor child.....*_

************************************************************************* 

"Rrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrhhhhhrrrrrrrrr........." 

The bakemono hunkered down, drawing his mane around him like a cloak against the driving rain. Tora's glowing eyes peered out of the shrouding hair; he spat out a curse in general against all dampness and mud, drawing his lips back against his sharp teeth in distaste. 

The Girl was coming back from the old shrine now, loaded down with another armful of annoying relics. They couldn't _harm_ him as such, not at all, but they made his fur stiffen and his skin twitch with the presence of power, no matter how infinitesimal. Irritating. 

The great, striped face wrinkled as the monster yawned; it had been a long night. He wondered when the noisy human approaching him with such clumsy splashing had become 'the Girl' in his mind; perhaps when she had made that little sacrifice for him? He smiled in the shadows and rain at the memory; her warmth still moved through his body, soothing the pain in his side and suffusing his muscles with borrowed power. So much power, and from so small a gift. What peculiar creatures humans were. 

So. For a little while at least, this one would be part of his territory. His human 'pet', perhaps, not a prospective meal. That should please the Brat no end----- 

_*Hhhrrrrrrrmmmmmm. Speaking of which.....*_ Tora peered out into the blanketing rain; surely Ushio-Brat had found the Donshoku by NOW, hadn't he? He had been eager enough, though his fear-sweat had been noticable even through the downpour. The Spearbearer was *finally* beginning to act as he should, finally starting to pay attention to the all-important goal of protecting the territory. The bakemono wiped his eyes with the back of one sodden hand and laughed softly to himself. 

It was _**amazing**_ what the presence of a potential mate could do. _*Young things in season, indeed.....*_ Tora chuckled again and turned to meet the Girl who was splashing her noisy way towards him. 

************************************************************************* 

Head down, Asako concentrated on all sorts of things as she stomped away across the yard; her footing, the way her eyes had adapted to the dark, the peculiar assortment of items she was carrying so carefully, the torrential downpour..... _anything._

Anything but her particular role in the plan to trap the Donshoku, that is. 

Shigure and Tora hadn't **quite** enlightened Ushio about all the details, she was sure. Otherwise he would've gone _absolutely ballistic_--- she knew him well enough to guarantee that; he'd have had his father's head on a plate and Tora's hide for a rug for even *thinking* of such a dangerous, idiotic, utterly insane plan----- 

The problem was, she thought to herself as she splashed through a particularly deep puddle, she actually agreed with the bakemono and the priest: It _WAS_ a good plan. It might even **work**, if everything went right. 

The _**other**_ little problem was this: she _also_ thought it was a dangerous, idiotic, and utterly insane plan..... 

Asako shrugged. She felt absurdly calm about the whole thing--- scared, yes, but..... maybe she was just too exhausted and cold and wet to be *really* afraid anymore. The best she could summon was a sort of inner nervous twitch...... that is, until she started thinking about the whole 'downstairs room' thing. 

*That* was different. Oh, she could manage to be ALL kinds of afraid when she thought about *that.* 

_*Better think about something else, then, stupid.*_ Asako wiped her hair from her eyes and shivered at a roll of thunder. 

As she shifted her burdens in an effort to keep from dropping them, her eyes slid down to touch on the bowl, the one that (she knew) was stained with blood. _WHY_ had Oji-san picked _that*_ as a 'holy thing?' It made no sense..... 

Never mind. Without a word she trudged through the mud past Tora and began using the items to fill in the gaps in a trap that looked for all the world as if someone had decided to hold a yard sale in a driving rainstorm. A truly bizzare, motley assortment of peculiar junk was laid out in a narrowing corridor across the muddy ground; carved stone artifacts lay beside stacks of religious pamphlets, and one particularly ugly (but apparently powerful) porcelain fu-dog rubbed shoulders with a broken wooden screen that had last seen service in a Greek Orthodox church. 

She hesitated, looking for a weak spot; it was hard to see clearly by the intermittent lightning, but that was all the illumination she had. Silently the bakemono pointed a dripping claw at the narrow space between a handsome-if-chipped terracotta teapot and an old twig broom; Asako gingerly placed her final item (some sort of metal statuette with an elephant's head) between the two, stepping back to survey her work. Beside her Tora gave an approving grunt. She glanced at him for a moment before starting to head back to the shrine--- and found herself being studied intently by his silver eyes. 

"Girl...." said the bakemono softly; ".....You know that you may well die in this, hrrrrrr?" 

Trust the monster not to let the subject lie. Asako closed her eyes for a long moment and felt her heart constrict as the numbing, comforting tiredness seemed to part like a curtain to let the fear back in. "----- Yes. I know." She stared the arrangement on the ground before her with unseeing eyes. "That thing's going to find us _soon_, and we can't drive it back with fire again--- not in this weather. We have to finish it off somehow." She laughed shortly. "This is my part of the job. It's not like I have a choice, really....." 

"Ahhhhhhhhhrrrr. But you *do* have a choice, Girl..... in one thing, at least." She looked up, wiping the rain from her eyes. The bakemono sat there, bulking huge and indistinct in the darkness. Tora looked away from her out towards the trees between the shrine and the rest of the Aotsuki compound. "If you wish--- if you choose--- I will make *certain* that the Red Devourer does not have the chance to eat your soul, as I promised." 

_*Oh-----*_ Frozen in place, Asako could only wait for him to finish what he was saying. 

Casually the monster glanced back at her, a flash of slanted silver. "The Donshoku would chase after the broken-necked body of its prey as readily as it would that same prey still alive--- for a few moments, at least." The calm statement hung in the sodden air, punctuated by cold raindrops. "I would do that for you--- end your difficulties *now* and throw your body Down There for it to chase, if you chose....." 

The girl shuddered, closing her eyes again. _*'Difficulties.'*_ She swayed on her feet, feeling such a rush of terror and weariness that she could scarcely continue standing. Asako faltered a step or two sideways, and then she was leaning against something wet and huge, something that shifted impatiently as it said "Well, Girl?" right beside her ear. 

The sound of the rain striking the earth seemed to fill the entire world for a moment; it made a continuous sound, a drumming shush that pounded in time with her heart. For a single long, black moment, Asako allowed herself to contemplate what the bakemono was offering--- it would be an easier death than--- and her soul wouldn't----- 

But no. No. If she did that, she'd be abandoning..... them. _Him. **Ushio**._ No; she wouldn't do that. Couldn't do that. 

Funny----- it had very little to do with, say, the fear of killing claws or bone-cracking strength; it didn't even have much to do with the fear of death. She just..... couldn't do it. _Couldn't._ Allowing the bakemono to take her life would, in a way, be participating in her *own murder.* No. She couldn't do that and remain **herself**, Nakamura Asako. 

All the tension seemed to seep out of the girl's muscles in one huge rush, and she slumped against the monster that had moments before offered her an easy death. Did he understand what he was saying? Probably; she had the feeling that Tora understood killing very well indeed. In his own strange way, he was actually trying to be _*kind.*_

At last Asako opened her eyes and spoke without turning her head. "I..... thank you. But _no_. I'll take my chances." The bakemono grunted. "Your choice; stupid. Brave, but stupid." 

She stayed there leaning against the wet, thick coat for a long moment more, taking a strange sort of comfort from his living presence. At least he was warm; there was precious little warmth in to be found in the pre-dawn darkness just now.A low growl of thunder boomed overhead, echoing back from the hills beyond; it mixed with the brittle sharp **crack!** of lightning, sounding oddly near beneath the lowering clouds. 

Lightning? Why didn't she see it? It sounded so close, but there was no flash----- 

_----- and THEN a single golden hotwire-brilliance of power blew the darkness apart as Ushio charged towards them running hell-for-leather from between the trees, the Spear a spitting, crackling beacon in his hands. **"HEADS UP!!!** IT'S **RIGHT BEHIND ME!!!!!"**----- and there **IT** was, boiling red and hideous from between the trees, coming TOWARDS THEM---- _

Now, **NOW. It was *time*-----!!!**

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_Gasp.... gasp.... phew! The final chapter will be out very soon, so lemmee know what you thought of this one while you wait, hmmm? Bye!..... Weary Ysabet _


	8. Elemental Things

I Of The Beholder - 8 _Here goes--- the last chapter, then the Epilogue. Take a deep breath and hold on!.... Ysabet_

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**Chapter 8: Elemental Things   
By Ysabet**  


  
  


_**"Thunder's good, thunder's impressive----- but it's lightning that does the work!"--- Mark Twain** _

Everything seemed to happen at once. 

One moment the girl and the bakemono were waiting, cold and tired and drenched to the bone by the predawn rain; _next, a whirling mailstrom of hellish scarlet was pouring across the darkened yard towards them, teeth snapping, hideous eyes shining in spots of evil luminescence, an acrid cloud of acidic HATE----- _

----- and there was Ushio too, running ahead of the monster, speeding towards them in his own crackling, brilliant firestorm of Spear-born lightning----- 

Asako cried out; she reached for him as he staggered, stumbled, fell with hands outstretched. Splashing forward to help him, she was abruptly jerked back by a large, rough hand that closed about her head like a vice. 

"FOOL!! Do you want to be destroyed, Girl? _*Look*_ at him!!!" Growling furiously, the bakemono shook her until her teeth rattled, then dropped her unceremoniously onto the wet ground; Asako's ears rang with the force of his grip, but she staggered upright and turned back to Ushio..... 

..... who crouched, tiny lightnings playing across his muddy form in miniature blue-white echoes of the storm overhead. His long black hair quivered out from his head; sparks spat and popped between his fingers, arced across his bowed back as he gasped for breath. Snarling more like a beast than a human being, he pivoted to face the Donshoku, rearing up on his knees and brandishing the Spear before him in widespread arms. In answer, the blade lit up _from within,_ incandescently bright: _**CRACK!!**_ Power broke the night into pieces as lightning spiderwebbed the yard from the Kemono No Yari, burning paths from tree to roof to stone wall..... 

**BOOOOOOOOMMM!!!!! Crackle-KRACKkkka-BOOM!!! Pop-pop-CRACKCRACK!!-SIZZLE-----** the sound was deafening; it blotted out the world. 

Asako shrank away, heart pounding wildly in her ears; she had _never_ seen Ushio like _this_ before----- he ***blazed,*** white tongues of force outlining his shape against the dark. The Donshoku boiled in the air, drew back and retreated in a rush into the stand of trees; it hung there half-obscured by the pounding rain (but not enough, not enough..... the eyes still blazed forth in a hundred windows into Hell.....) 

The girl stood transfixed and frozen, water running down her face; those eyes--- they were looking at HER. The Spearbearer's lightning blazed in a wall of protection between them, but they were still fixed on HER, *all* of them. 

And so were Tora's, hot silver against his rain-darkened face. "GIRL!!" he roared, his rough voice nearly drowned out by the heavy downpour and the continuous electrical fire: "Can you _do_ what's needed?!? _**CAN YOU DO IT, GIRL??!?"**_

_Could she?_

..... Yes. _***Yes.***_ She could; it was now or never. Asako nodded hard, wiping her eyes (rain? sweat? tears?) with the back of one hand. 

"THEN STOP COWERING, DAMN YOU!! YOUR FEAR WILL KILL US!! **DO IT!!!"**

Drawing a deep and final breath, the girl let herself have one long, last shiver of fear; it worked its way down from her scalp (how the tiny hairs at the nape of her neck tried to stand on end!) through her spine (and oh God oh God how her heart pounded), flowing across her body to the very soles of her feet. 

And that..... was _that._ No more time for fear. No more time for _*anything*_ now but the **fight.** _Nothing else..... mattered._

..... Asako drew herself up, a hard light in her eyes. _"Nothing else..."_ she whispered, a mere breath of sound. Then her gaze sharpened and fixed on the bakemono. "You just do _YOUR_ part and I'll do _MINE!!"_ she hissed, her voice no less fierce than his. Tora growled in approval, his teeth flashing briefly in a sharp white smile. 

The girl turned and pelted back towards the old shrine. Behind her, above the din, she could still hear the Donshoku shrilling its hunger out.... for her. For her. 

******************************************************************************************* 

Shigure was ready; the priest crouched beside the stairway, a rusty metal bucket in his hands. From beneath the pail's dented lid tendrils of smoke wisped up, and a faint red light flickered welcome and warm. _*Good; he found something he could burn.*_ Skidding to a stop, Asako stared down into the black pit of the stairwell--- if you could call it that; the ancient wooden steps were so steep that they were scarcely more than a rough ladder. 

But where they lead..... Asako could smell the strong, chemical reek of the trap, could see the faintest flash of light far below as fire from the storm above reflected off dull silver. All lay ready, then..... She whirled back to Shigure; grabbing up the soaking wet robe that he held out to her, she shrugged it on (it was far too big, but that was just as well, really) and hissed out: "HIDE!!!" 

He nodded wordlessly and sank down to settle behind a crate which he had already marked with his careful wards, pulling the bucket close against his under-robes. The girl hoped he wouldn't get burned. 

So; ready here. Asako almost laughed out loud for one strange moment; when she had given up her fear a few minutes before, given up everything except the battle, she hadn't expected to fee like this. She felt _charged,_ was filled with a terrible elation, a wild and eager desire to _end this, end it **NOW!!!** _

(filled..... like a cracked bowl, stained and holding a single sharp shard of glass) 

With a satisfied snarl of her own, the girl turned and ran back out into the rain, towards the monsters that awaited her there. 

******************************************************************************************* 

Shigure watched the young woman he had known from infancy run off into the rain; for the barest second a fleeting expression of wonder flickered in his grey eyes. 

Had she but realized it, Asako's face had resembled Tora's for a moment; his fierceness was no greater than hers--- her eyes had gleamed no less terribly than his. 

Shigure shivered and held the metal bucket a little closer, waiting. The timing would have to be *perfect* if this was to work. His lips moving silently, the priest prayed and clutched the hidden fire in his hands tightly, tightly. Waiting----- 

******************************************************************************************* 

Back out in the yard, Ushio stood beside Tora, Spear held butt-down, point forward. The silvery glow had dimmed a little from the blade but stray threads of blue-white energy still popped and crackled across its length; every now and then Tora would glance sideways at it, his lips drawing back a little in an uneasy snarl. Each time he would visibly calm himself, pull his attention back to the scarlet thing that hung back from them half-hidden in the trees. 

At last Ushio had had enough; eyes still fixed on the Donshoku, he muttered "Hey, fuzzball; what's your problem? You keep looking at the Spear like you expect it to bite you, not the Donshoku. What gives?" 

The monster rumbled a little, low in his throat; he sounded almost embarrassed. "..... Just remembering the last time I saw the Spear like _this_, in _this_ place. It's... been a while, but----- Hrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr. I **remember."**

Ushio did a double-take as he understood: a while..... five hundred years! "My ancester, huh?" The bakemono's only answer was a louder growl. Before them, the Donshoku swirled uneasily, occasional tendrils of thick red fog coiling across and around branches and treetrunks; where they touched, a sharp acid-and-burnt-wood smell arose. Tora's muzzle wrinkled at the bitter scent, and Ushio's lips drew back from his teeth in distaste. _*If we live through this we'll have a lot of rebuilding to do..... Some of those trees will have to go; this'll kill them.*_ He had climbed in the ancient almond trees as a child. _*Just one more thing that this bastard has destroyed. I wonder how many of those poor archaology students it got?*_

Behind them rapid footsteps were splashing through the puddles. Without breaking the line of his stare, Tora muttered "See to the Girl, Brat. I will keep watch." Ushio hesitated; that was..... rather unlike the bakemono, that small kindness. But..... As he stepped back (a wary eye still on the Donshoku), he felt Asako come up beside him; she was breathing hard, her heartbeat actually audible over the rush of the rain to his hypersensitive ears. 

What the hell was she _doing_ anyway, coming so close to that thing? Wasn't she the one most in danger? He frowned as he recalled Shigure and Tora's 'plan' of a little while earlier: They were to build a trap, he was to lure the monster into range, and..... they were to spring the trap somehow. He wasn't too clear on the 'somehow' though..... "Asako?" he asked, making the single word a question. 

She stood there, enveloped in something so soggy and wet that it took him a moment to figure out what it was: his father's long robe. The girl wasn't looking at him just now. Instead she was staring steadily at the scarlet haze of eyes and teeth a little beyond Tora, who had both huge hands outstretched and spread wide, his talons glimmering uneasily with threads of lightning. The spatters and pops of electricity reflected off of Asako's eyes, fierce and determined in the darkness; the rain streaked her dark hair unheeded across her face. 

She looked beautiful. 

He shook the thought off; now was not the time. _"Asako?"_ he said again, a little more strongly. She turned to stare at him then with her dark eyes, and he started a little at the strange resolve so evident there. For a moment she said nothing, just looked..... Then, almost hesitantly: "Ushio..... in a minute, I'm going to--- I mean, I've got to--- " She stopped, blinking down at the ground and frowning. Then she glanced slantwise up at him from under her tangled hair and began again. _"..... Look._ Don't be too hard on your Dad and Tora, okay? They thought this up, but I agreed to it..... It was my decision too." 

A horrible, apprehensive coldness was beginning to creep its way into his bones. Ushio reached out with his free hand to touch her shoulder. _**"Asako??"**_

She sighed, then shook her head. "Give me a minute....." Drawing back a few steps, the girl stepped up towards the bakemono. Ushio watched as she leaned close to Tora, speaking a few words to the monster that he couldn't quite overhear; he grunted once, shooting a glance over his shoulder at the Spearbearer, and then said quite audibly: _"Now,_ Girl?!?" 

_**"NOW!!"**_ said Asako..... 

..... and Ushio found himself suddenly grabbed up bodily, wet furry arms pinning both his own limbs and the Spear close to his body; the weapon belled and sang in its own metallic alarm. He struggled, cursing: "TORA!!! What the GODDAM HELL are you _doing,_ you asshole?!? _LET ME GO!!!"_

"Can't do that, Brat--- you'd interfere-----" grunted the rough voice in his ear. The bakemono dragged them both a little to one side of the yard, away from the entrance to the shrine. "Stop struggling, you fool! _Let her do what she has to do!!"_ And the arms held him tighter, pinning him against the wet, shaggy pelt. 

_*'Her'? What she 'has to do?!?' What----? Oh no, **no WAY** in hell-----*_

**"ASAKOOOO!!!"** he screamed----- 

******************************************************************************************* 

_*Now or never, now or never, now or never.....*_ The words throbbed in her head like a drumbeat. 

All the frustration, all the fear and guilt and pain of the night seemed to build up and build up and _build up,_ growing and transforming into anger, into FURY----- Asako sprang forward towards the Seki Donshoku Mono, waving her arms over her head. 

"C'MON, YOU BASTARD!!! COME AFTER ME, COME AFTER _MEEEE!!!_ YOU _WANTED_ ME, NOW _**COME GET ME, DONSHOKU!!**_ COME ON, _**COME ONNNN!!!"**_

The creature seemed to hesitate, confused by her wildly gesticulating figure..... Then, as Ushio struggled hard in Tora's harsh embrace, it boiled forward, a rush of slitted eyes and open mouths and hissing, burning fumes----- 

Asako was running, running, running! Splashing through the puddles between the narrowing corridor of charged objects, catching one in particular up as the fled towards the only haven left her: the dark, gaping hole in the shrine floor----- 

And the Donshoku followed!! As it passed him, Ushio brought the Spear around in a screaming arc to strike HARD against Tora's shoulder; the bakemono yelped, cursed and released him. With a roar of rising panic, Ushio charged after the monster; _"ASAKOOO!!!" _

"DON'T JUST SHOUT AT THEM, BRAT, **PURSUE** THEM!!" The orange monster snarled loudly and loped after the rushing scarlet cloud, fire crackling between his claws. He slashed at a trailing vaporous limb and was rewarded by a loud hiss. 

"But, but _ASAKO----!!"_ He could just see her; she had paused at the shrine entrance, was shouting something and waving her arms--- 

Tora hissed in pain as the Donshoku lashed out with another misty tentacle, scoring the bakemono's foreleg with a trail of acidic burn. "There is a trap awaiting this bastard; she is the bait! If all goes as planned, she'll be well enough--- now _help me drive this thing towards her!! Don't waste her courage, Brat!!!"_

With a snarl that was very nearly a moan, Ushio charged forward to slash at the Donshoku's flanks, driving it forward..... 

******************************************************************************************* 

The holy things made it nervous; the Donshoku had slowed its rush a little, flinching off from the obviously painful touch of the items to either side. Now it slowed, hovering in midair before the entrance to the shrine. Asako waited at the top of the stairs, trembling with exertion and adrenaline--- and with something else: A strange, strange euphoria, a fierce joy at the thought of *finishing* this, finally _*finishing*_ it----- 

Behind the creature Asako could see and hear the Spearbearer and the bakemono as they tormented and tore at the Donshoku's rear defenses, and that seemed to finally make up the monster's mind; and yet, and yet--- still it hesitated. It HAD to follow her--- A cry of pain from behind the creature made her bite her lip and swear; _***Ushio-----!***_

Furiously she waved her arms and shouted again. **"Come ON,** DONSHOKU!!! **You _want me,_ Red Devourer?!? WELL, I'M HERE!!!** Come on, I'll make this _**EASY**_ FOR YOU-----" And she brought up the single item she had grabbed from the line of holy objects as she ran past: A single, stained shard of glass..... 

One swipe across her bared forearm brought a hot, red line of blood running in streams to drip onto the wet, stone floor. In front of her the monster seemed to coil, to gather in the air like a predator _sniffing_ out wounded prey; then it **lunged-----**

Only, Asako wasn't there. 

She was charging downwards, taking the wooden stairs three at a time, oddly surefooted in the near total darkness---- as the scarlet cloud charged through the opening in the floor, the stones around it hissed as acid ate away at them----- 

**_"OJI-SAN, OJI-SAN!!! NOW!!!"_** she screamed, rushing across the floor towards the length of dimly gleaming silver that lay against the wall----- 

And, just as the boy and the bakemono arrived in their own rush at the entrance to the stairs, Shigure rose up out of his hiding place and threw the hot, smoking bucket he had been hiding down the stairs to burst upon the floor below--- 

--- the _kerosene-puddled floor-----_

Flames exploded, roaring up from either side of the fuel flooded room, from the base of the ladder, from everywhere except the narrow circle of dry stone at the far end of the room where the girl crouched beneath a sheet of dull silver; the blank, shining surface should have reflected _everything,_ every blossom of flame, every screaming mouth and writhing scarlet tentacle, every wild and frantic eye--- but it did not. _It showed only the fire._ The monster wavered back, trying to retreat, but the flames were behind it and around it and arching towards the ceiling, burning the very air; the Seki Donshoku Mono surged forward like a deadly tide, searching for some haven, some place to hide..... surged forward until it met the thing which reflected it not at all but **_ate_** it instead, _drank it up like a hungry, empty mouth-----_

-----just as the Spearbearer charged forward with a single frantic leap and a roar, Spear burning like the hand of a god----- 

But the Donshoku was no longer there, and the kerosene was burning away, the fire was dying down. There was only the sheet of silver, not empty now at all, but full of a raging, wildly beating blood-red THING that quivered just below the surface..... And there was the girl; she moaned and shifted behind the shining barricade that had saved her both from the fire and the Red Devourer, drawing back the sodden cloth of her sleeve from her face. 

Panting, Ushio knelt beside her; she was sweat-drenched and sooty; the ends of her hair emitted tendrils where the heat had made them smoke. But Asako was alright, gasping for breath and sobbing a little with the aftermath of adrenaline--- and right then and there the Spearbearer decided that she was the most _beautiful_ sight he had ever seen----- 

Shaking and coughing a little, she shoved the makeshift mirror away from her; belatedly the Spearbearer realized just what it was..... 

Aluminum foil, rubbed smooth and then wall-stapled over an old sheet of plywood. 

_(He recalled, once upon a very distant time, complaining as his father had sent him into the old shrine to clean out all the old junk..... if he had actually done that little job, instead of tripping over a strange old trapdoor in the floor.....)_

Ushio shuddered once, hard. Then he realized that he was holding Asako in his arms, just holding her for a moment or two, or perhaps she was holding him; who could tell? And who cared, anyway?.............. 

**"BRAT!!"** He started; that was Tora. Coughing a little on the smell of burned kerosene Ushio turned to look over his shoulder. The bakemono had stopped at the top of the stairs, was staring down large-eyed into the room. "Before you start celebrating, _don't you think we should take care of **THAT,** Boy?!?"_ said the monster, pointing at the makeshift mirror that lay beside him on the floor. 

Ushio looked down, yelped once, and pulled himself and Asako back away. The dull metal surface boiled with red, bubbled over with it like a forge; the Donshoku beat with tentacles, bit with teeth, frothed and railed and tore at its prison..... The mirror held, but for how long?!? Frantically Ushio glared back up at Tora. _"So what'll we do with it now? Got any BRIGHT IDEAS, bakemono?!?"_ He reached for the plywood sheet, then cursed and yanked his hand back as his fingers blistered. 

Smelling strongly of kerosene smoke, Asako shouldered him gently aside. "You--- " she coughed, "you've got too much of the Spear in you to hold this--- I'll do it---" and she carefully caught up the sheet of plywood by its edges. Beneath her fingers the Donshoku shrilled silently in its prison, and she hissed a little with pain. "It-- it's all right, it's not too bad--- let's get OUT of here---" She scrambled to her feet, holding the board at arm's length before her and stumbling towards the scorched wooden stairs. 

Up, UP and back into the clean air----- For a moment they both wavered on their feet at the top of the stairs, blinking at the darkness and the continuing rain..... 

Was that _light_ off to the east? The night had lasted forever; but surely dawn had to come sooner or later, didn't it? 

Never mind. The girl let out a squawk as Tora grabbed her around the waist, pulling her against his sodden fur; he grabbed Ushio up and threw the Spearbearer onto his back, leaping into the air. _"Break the Seal on this place, Boy! Break it, or I can't fly above the rooftops! BREAK IT NOW!!!"_ And the Spear swept up, gleaming; it swung once, twice, three times across empty air, trailing light behind it..... 

_*NNNNNGGGG*_

.....and something *broke* open, something split, spilling the three of them up and up and UP into the soaking air above the Aotsuki compound. Asako choked once and held onto the board hard, gulping as the bakemono surged in a rising, racing spiral higher, _higher, HIGHER....._ The low clouds were just above them now, soaking all three with their burden of unshed rain; and now they were passing through in grey, soggy darkness. And now..... 

Now they were above them, rising into clear brightness studded with stars. Slowing, the bakemono reached the top of his arc, arms widespread. Asako looked up into his face; the silver eyes were fierce and shining. They looked down at her, full of a terrible approval; "_You did **WELL,** Girl!!..... Will you give us our enemy now?"_

In answer, she held out the makeshift mirror. Tora glanced up at the Spearbearer, gesturing with his free hand. _"Take it, Spearbearer....."_

The Spear darted down, impaling the wood with a single echoing "CRUNCH!!" With a snarl, Ushio raised the trap containing the Seki Donshoku Mono above his head towards the Stars; below him, white fire began to crackle at Tora's brow, shivering the air, splintering and popping, radiating out and around..... 

.....wreathing _**up**_ the Spear and mixing with the golden lightings that were spidering out from the blade, writhing across and around the mirror..... Within its prison the Donshoku **screamed,** the sound actually audible there in the space above the clouds; Asako swallowed hard and held onto Tora's forearm, burying her face in his fur for a moment. Then she raised her eyes to witness the end of her enemy. 

Ushio was standing on Tora's back now, a living lightning rod; his long black hair streamed out from his face, crackling straw-stiff and straight as power quivered through him upwards into the silver sheet that writhed in its impalement---- 

_----- writhed---- _

----- **screamed again**---- 

----- and _**exploded**_ into a rain of tiny sparks, a miniature storm of woodash and molten aluminum and _nothing else at all, not the faintest trace of scarlet----- _

**The Donshoku was gone.**

******************************************************************************************* 


	9. EPILOGUE: Closing The Circle

I Of The Beholder - Epilogue _The last downhill bit, to allow our heros to cool off.... Ysabet_

************************************************************************ 

  
**Epilogue: Closing the Circle   
By Ysabet**  


  
  


Dawn bloomed like a flower, its petals wet and shining; it filled the world with the wild, sweet scent of rain and thunder. 

Three exhausted figures sprawled on the miraculously-undamaged (and relatively dry) front porch of the Asako home; it was the only building that had not been scorched, blasted or otherwise bludgeoned over the previous night. Around them the early light showed up every raw-wood scar, every tendril of smoke without mercy. 

Drip. Drip. Drip..... The rain had stopped at last, but tiny rivulets of water still made their way in a crystalline curtain from the roof's edge to the ground. The Spearbearer stretched his weary limbs out and pillowed his head on one bent arm, wincing as an acid-burn along the back of his thigh snagged against a floorboard. He grinned up at the pale gray sky; _*Man, what a beautiful morning.....* _

*We're alive. We're all alive, and the Seki Donshoku Mono's dead.* The boy stretched again, a long, satisfied stretch; and he grinned a rather feral grin. _*It's a good morning to be alive.....*_

Still lying flat, Ushio turned his head to look at Asako. The girl was leaning back against a post, her tangled, drying hair fluttering around her head in the light breeze. Her eyes were closed, her face calm and relaxed; he could see a pulse beating in her pale throat. 

Beside her, Shigure took a deep swallow from an oversized western-style mug of coffee and sighed deeply in contentment; his son winced inwardly at his father's bedraggled condition. Of them all, Shigure had fared the worst--- the priest had given his outer robe to Asako, had been bitten and acid-scorched deeply along one calf, and had lost a large chunk of his gray hair to a gout of flame that had shot up unexpectedly from the underground room when he had set everything ablaze. But his lined face wore its usual expression of sardonic gentleness, and his eyes were serene in the dim, pearly light. 

He _hadn't_ been quite so serene when his son had confronted him regarding Asako's ACTUAL role as bait a little while earlier.... Ushio had thought when the priest had mentioned her as a lure for the monster that she had been simply going to show herself briefly, just enough to draw it in--- he had NEVER thought that she would..... 

Screw that. He simply hadn't _thought_ at all. Even now he could see the necessity of what she had done. But he'd be _**damned**_ if he ever *agreed* with anybody on it..... 

_*Out loud, anyway. But so help me, if Dad EVER tries something like that again, I'm gonna put the Spear where the sun doesn't shine.*_

Ushio sighed, wriggling his aching shoulders against the surface of the porch. _*Shit, I've got bruises on top of my bruises---_ A shower and clean clothes for the three humans had worked wonders, but only time would set things completely right. He glanced around the porch and frowned a little. _*Hey; I wonder where Tora is?*_ He'd have to go and check on the bakemono, make sure everything was alright and all that. 

He blinked at movement beside him. Asako had slid down from her place against the post and now lay supine across the boards, head resting comfortably on her clasped hands. She opened one eye and glanced sideways at him; something in his face must have reassured her, for she smiled a little to herself and closed the eye again. 

The Spearbearer watched her for a few moments, an unconscious smile tugging at his lips. She looked..... he didn't really know how to say what she looked like to him. She looked..... she was..... Well, hell. He'd figure it out later. Maybe the words didn't matter, anyway; maybe the feeling was enough. More than enough. 

He sighed again, a rather rueful sound; it made his father look up at him, an inscrutable expression on his face. This 'growing up' business was..... difficult; hard on him, hard on her too. But it looked to be worth the trouble, somehow. 

Rubbing at a particularly painful graze, Ushio clambered to his feet to go in search of his partner. Behind him, his father sat on the porch beside the drowsing girl, smiling at nothing in particular. 

*******************************************************************************************

"Tora-----?" Ushio's voice rang hollowly off the blackened stone walls. 

Silence. Then: ".....down here, Brat....." 

Of all the places that he had looked, Ushio would *never* have expected to find the bakemono sitting quietly in the room below the old shrine. In the very few instances that mention of his old prison had come up between the two of them, Tora had cut the conversation off sharply; it was obvious that he hated the room with a fierceness that was nearly beyond human comprehension. _*Of course,*_ mused Ushio, _*if **I** had spent five hundred years stuck down here in the dark, I'd probably feel the same.*_ He shook his head briefly; he was getting a little punchy with exhaustion. 

The Spearbearer trudged slowly down the scorched wooden steps, one slightly scorched hand scrabbling through his newly-shortened hair. It felt odd to be human again----- there had been only a handful of times when he had spent more than a few hours in his inhuman form; he kept brushing back hair that wasn't there away from his face. 

The room was a mess. Blackened kerosene residue stained the stones underfoot, and the heavy scent of burned stone and fuel-smoke hung in the air. The boy shifted the Kemono no Yari to his shoulder and craned his head back; a thrill of horror quivered through him as he saw how the fire had even managed to scorch the ceiling above----- 

_*Asako..... Asako, if you hadn't had that wet robe over you, and that 'mirror'... you'd've been toast. And you knew that, didn't you?*_

He closed his eyes and shuddered for a long moment, then opened them. 

Tora sat catlike in the center of the room, tail twitching in fast, nervous flicks. His attention was focused on one single place, one stone in particular: a large, oddly irregular chunk that stuck out from the wall a bit, darkly stained, a single break in the stone glaring like a slitted eye. One might almost think that the stains were blood or something similar..... 

Ushio was silent, watching. Come to think of it, *he* hadn't come down here since----- well----- _*Huh. Since **then,** in fact. **Wow.***_

Very slowly the bakemono stood, stepping hesitantly forward; he reached out with a single taloned finger to trace the stained fissure. Then he glanced back towards Ushio, his eyes feral, shining coin-silver in the shadowy half-light..... 

_(For a moment it was as if the intervening span of time had never happened; for a moment a human boy was facing a terrible, newly-freed monster for the first time, Spear in hand, afraid but ready to fight----- for a moment-----)_

And then the monster laughed softly, and the moment passed as both looked away. And if the laugh was a trifle forced, neither boy nor bakemono felt like mentioning it. 

Ushio sat down on the smoky steps, Spear resting across his knees. "So..... what brought you down here again, Furball? Dad just made some coffee, if you want some....." Tora had an appallingly strong fondness for coffee. 

The ancient bakemono shrugged. "I..... felt like seeing it again. I have been--- reluctant--- to come Down Here since I was freed; but....." and he glanced up again, an odd almost-smile on his face. ".....But _enough_ of this place. Coffee!" He rumbled contentedly at the thought, and Ushio rolled his eyes. The boy climbed to his feet and started up the stairs, only to pause at the top, waiting. "Hey--- you coming, Monster?" 

The bakemono had stopped at the foot of the stairs, looking back at the wall. "You know, Brat..... there was a moment when the Donshoku had me, back when we were fighting outside the new shrine....." 

The boy nodded, hefting his weapon back onto his shoulder. "Yeah, I remember; I--- think it got to me and Asako at about the same time. Uhmmmm..... it made us dream, showed us things we wanted; offered them to us. But it didn't catch us--- we both saw through the dreams." He quirked one eyebrow and frowned down at the bakemono's face, the fur striped and barred with early sunlight. "So, did it offer you something too, Tora? What did you-----" 

"What did I dream of?" asked the monster, softly. The silver eyes stared up at the Spearbearer, unblinking. 

At last he grinned, teeth flashing white against his face. "I dreamed a dream that I had dreamed a thousand, thousand times before Down Here; a dream of being freed, and of killing that bastard Samurai who trapped me." He paused, and Ushio felt a shiver trying to work its way up from his spine to his skin. He waited, suppressing the reaction; if he wasn't *fairly* sure of Tora by _now....._

The bakemono held up a clawed forefinger. "BUT..... I was already free; there was no temptation. And besides---" and he paused to grin slyly up at the face above him, "--- the Donshoku made a TERRIBLE Samurai! Not tasty-looking at all; much too thin, with little meat on the bones." The wooden stairs creaked under Tora's feet as he emerged from the stone room. 

Ushio rolled his eyes again as they began moving back towards the house. "Idiot....." The monster just snorted, raising his head and sniffing at the fresh, rain-scented wind. He arched his back once, stretching cat-wise across the wet ground, tail lashing. 

As they walked away, the boy glanced behind him; the stairway entrance yawned black and empty, a hole filled with shadows and old memories of pain. He looked away. Beside him the bakemono grunted with satisfaction. "Hhrrrrh. Do you know, Ushio-Brat, that's the one thing that could be better this morning?" 

The Spearbearer avoided a puddle. "Huh? What?" 

"There was nothing left of the Donshoku afterwards to _eat."_

Ushio grimaced, glancing sideways at the monster that padded along beside him. "Tora----- Even for _you,_ that's....." he trailed off. _"Eeeewww....."_ Beside him the monster shrugged again. "It was a rough night; we fought hard, we destroyed our enemy..... and I'm hungry." The great striped face wrinkled as he yawned, silver eyes slitting at the rays of early sunlight. 

"Heh..... It's a good morning to be alive, isn't it, Brat?" 

The Spearbearer eyed his partner curiously for a moment, then laughed wryly. Monsters would be monsters, he supposed. "Yeah, it is. It really is." 

*******************************************************************************************

When they arrived back at the porch, they found Asako alone; the girl sat cross-legged, a steaming mug of coffee in her hands. A second mug--- and a full pot--- rested beside her on the porch; Tora wasted no time in snatching up the pot, downing the contents in a few huge gulps. With a heartfelt sigh the monster sat back on his haunches, cradling the warm pot in his huge hands; his claws clinked softly on the glass. 

Ushio settled himself down beside the girl--- not too close, but not too far away either. As he sipped at his own mug (tea, he noted thankfully--- he _*hated*_ coffee), he could feel Asako watching him and smiled to himself; it was a good feeling..... even though he could also feel his cheekbones beginning to burn a little. He bent his head, flushing as he ran one hand along the length of the Spear's haft where it lay beside him. 

He felt oddly shy around Asako; it had been easier, somehow, to be open during the terror and fury of the night before. Why was that, he wondered? What was he supposed to do now, act like nothing had happened or pick up where they had left off? That _*last*_ option was the most attractive, without a doubt..... but how the hell did you go about that sort of thing? 

Oh well; he supposed they'd muddle through somehow. He took another swallow of his tea. 

The wooden porch-planks creaked as Tora stretched his full length out one more time, the vertebrae in his spine popping audibly. Flattened out across the boards with his eyes closed, he looked for all the world like some sort of huge bakemono-rug. Opening one eye, he focused on Asako. "More coffee?" he grunted, the words less a question than a command. 

Asako snorted in answer; her tone was remarkably similar to his. "You could learn to make it yourself, you know....." But she took the empty pot and climbed to her feet. 

Ushio finished his cup in one swallow and grimaced. "Oh, he _can_ make it himself, if you don't mind coffee grounds all over the place and half-a-dozen filters with holes punched through them on the floor. Claws and coffeemakers don't mix very well." Water ran in the kitchen as she filled the pot, and he could hear the soft rattle of grounds against paper. After a moment the rich scent of brewing coffee drifted on the clean air of morning; the bakemono rumbled softly, a contented sound. 

Ushio lay back again; the sun was beginning to warm the damp boards, and a faint breath of steamed wood mixed with the bittersweet coffee-scent. "Where's Dad?" he wondered aloud. A gentle, rising wind carried his words across the yard and made the Spear's streamers flutter. 

Asako came back out onto the porch and leaned against the post beside him, arms crossed. "Down past the gate; one of your neighbors smelled the smoke from last night and drove up to see if everything was alright. Oji-san said he was going to borrow the guy's cellphone and call my parents and the insurance company----- I think he has some sort of story about me being stuck here because of the storm last night to tell them, and I guess the insurance people are going to hear about some _**really** big_ lightning strikes....." Her voice trailed off as she surveyed the yard. The remains of the blown-apart almond tree had stopped smoking long ago, but blackened chunks lay scattered in all directions. The broken wall at the front of the main shrine would be a bit harder to explain, but somehow they both felt sure that Shigure would manage. For a priest, the man managed to be a very competent liar. 

A death-rattling gurgle from the kitchen signified the completion of the coffeemaker's task; Ushio looked up to find Asako looking down at him, smiling slightly. She gestured towards his cup. "Want some more tea?" 

The boy smiled. "Nahh..... thanks, though." He passed the empty cup up, and their fingers brushed briefly; the girl paused for half a second before turning towards the doorway. 

She looked so tired; faint, bluish shadows underlaid her eyes, and her face had the pallor of extreme exhaustion. But she looked so, well, so *Asako*----- the _real_ Asako, not the fake dream-Asako that the Donshoku had tried to snare him with. He **knew** this girl, knew that she was cranky in the morning, hated being bossed around, got angry at the drop of a hat about the _stupidest_ things..... 

.....knew that she would go through hell for the right reason; would pass through terror for a friend; would die if she had to, just so you didn't..... 

_*Asako.*_

"Hey, Brat." Ushio jumped. He hadn't realized that he had been staring after Asako until Tora's voice brought him back to the world. "Yeah?" he muttered, embarrassed. He could hear her footsteps coming up towards the doorway--- 

The bakemono had rolled onto his side and lay regarding the Spearbearer, chin propped on one hand. "When does the Girl move in?" 

_**".....WHAT?!?"**_ Ushio stared, not quite allowing himself to comprehend the monster's words. 

Tora inclined his shaggy head towards the kitchen. "That one--- when does she move in?" The monster chuckled deep in his chest. "You are obviously pre-mates..... Courting _usually_ leads to humans pairing up, and that means the Girl will be moving in here. So when?" The bakemono leaned forward on his elbow, grinning slyly. 

The boy opened and closed his mouth, feeling simultaneously outraged and embarrassed beyond belief. **"!!!"** Beet-red, he scrabbled beside him for the Spear..... 

.....which was, to his horror, _not there._

***WHACKK!!!***

Tora lay sprawled on his face, both huge hands clasped across his aching skull; over him stood Asako, Spear in hand, assuming a position reminiscent of some legendary Amazon of ancient Greece. Her face mirrored Ushio's outrage, and the monster *flinched* as she stomped one foot right beside his nose. 

"YOU can keep your _ideas_ to yourself, Tora!!... We'll manage just _fine_ without you and your suggestions---" Her face looked as red as Ushio's felt. For a moment she stared down angrily at the quivering monster, who rolled one eye up and looked at her through his hair..... and then her gaze dropped to the weapon she held in both hands. With a startled expression Asako dropped the Spear as if it were red-hot; it landed with a clatter beside the chastened Tora, who flinched a second time at the noise. 

Ushio watched her stomp off into the yard towards the gate, limping slightly. Later, he would swear that she had been *growling.* 

"Thanks a _*lot,*_ shithead!!" he hissed angrily. Tora just muttered something under his breath. The monster stared after the departing young woman, then looked back at the Spearbearer. After a moment he looked again towards Asako, and then slowly swung his gaze again towards Ushio..... and began to laugh. 

And laugh, and laugh, and laugh. The huge, rude guffaws shook the swallows from the trees, scattered echoes across the morning. 

Ushio snorted hard. "What the _hell_ are you laughing at, Furball? You just screwed things up with me and Asako--- " He stopped, ears burning. 

But the bakemono just rolled back onto his side and propped his chin up again, still laughing uproariously. He pointed a clawed finger after the girl's angry figure, then at the Spearbearer. "Ohhhh, Brat----- poor, poor Brat; you know _**nothing**_ about females, do you??" And he began to laugh all over again. 

Grabbing up the Spear, Ushio stumbled down off the porch and hurried away after Asako, leaving the monster and his amusement behind. 

*******************************************************************************************

Shigure was leaning against the wall a little ways down the road, talking animatedly to Mr. Muneaki, the Aotsuki's nearest neighbor. The priest looked somewhat less exhausted now that the worrying phone calls to Asako's parents and the insurance company had been taken care of; he smiled at a comment made by the older man and glanced towards the gate. 

".....Yes, I suppose we _were_ lucky, all things considered. We haven't checked on all the damage as yet----- the power is still out at the shrine and will be until the lines are repaired, I suppose; it's a good thing that the house was on a separate line." He sighed as he caught sight of the drooping branches of the tall trees in front of the older shrine; their bedraggled condition could be seen fairly clearly above the walls. "We'll have to remove a few of the trees though; that's a shame." 

Mr. Muneaki harrumped in sympathy; then he followed the direction of Shigure's gaze. "Now, who's that? Isn't that the Nakamura's daughter? She's grown a bit, hasn't she?" 

The priest smiled a little thinly. "So she has; children have a way of doing that--- mostly while your back is turned. Time passes for us all....." He watched the young woman stomp towards him angrily, her face set in an annoyed frown. "Asako-chan?" 

She looked up. "Oh--- Oji-san..... Ahhh, good morning, Muneaki-san. Umm, Oji-san--- did you reach my parents?" Her anger seemed to fade a little. 

He nodded reassuringly. "They were worried, but they understood. Besides, the lights went out for a few hours there as well, and your father apparently stumbled over a chair in the dark. Your mother has had her hands full with _him_ for the last few hours....." At her expression of concern, he quickly continued: "Oh, nothing too serious! Just a sprained ankle, from the sound of it." Shigure laughed. "You Nakamuras are a strong lot, are you not?" Then his smile faded a little as he recalled the previous night and the sight of a brave, frightened young woman darting past him into the dark, expecting fire to follow..... 

After a moment she laughed too, her expression easing a little. "Well--- I need to get home." She looked at him, really *looked* at him for a long moment----- and smiled, her eyes shining. _"Thank you, Oji-san....._ for taking care of me." Stepping forward, Asako hugged the priest tightly. He smiled, stroking her hair with one scratched hand. "Yes....." he said softly into her brown hair; ".....and thank you as well, child. Such a strong one....." He gently let her go; then, as she turned to walk away, he looked at her back inquisitively. "Er--- Asako-chan? Why don't you ask my son to walk you back?" 

She stiffened, her shoulders squaring up for a second; then she relaxed a trifle, glancing back over her shoulder with an unladylike snort. "If he _wants_ to walk me back, he'll just have to hurry. That's _his_ business, if he wants to; I'm going **home** now. Abayo, Oji-san!" And she marched on, her slender figure gradually dissapearing around the curve. 

The two men watched her leave. "Well..... so _**that's**_ what's up between your son and the Nakamura girl, is it?" chuckled the older man. "You're right; they *do* grow up behind one's back. I remember when she was just a tiny slip of a child....." 

"So do I" said Shigure, softly, remembering another child, a wild and rebellious boy. He smiled to himself, hearing hurried footsteps approaching from the gate. Right on cue..... Without turning around he called out: "RUN, boy!" 

From behind him, faintly, he could hear Tora's laughter. 

*******************************************************************************************

He sprinted; she had to be just around the curve, she couldn't have gotten too far yet----- 

----- and, in fact, she hadn't. She was leaning against a signpost, watching Ushio as he faltered to a halt with the Spear bouncing on his shoulder, panting. 

"What _**kept**_ you? I've been waiting....." said Asako, smiling. 

********************************************************************************************************

  
  


_Well, it's done....... Sigh. I always feel a little sorry when I finish something; there's a gap until the next story starts up. But that'll be soon, believe me. I hope you enjoyed this one--- I didn't intend for the Epilogue to be as long as a *chapter,* but it just grew that way. So did you like the story? Review and let me know, okay?!? Bye!............... Ysabet_


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